Author: Josh King

Readability: 1

Length: 86 pgs

Author: Ligon Duncan

C.J. Mahaney commends Does Grace Grow Best in Winter? saying,

If you are presently suffering, this book is for you.  And if you are not, this book is still for you—in preparation for the trials that will undoubtedly come. Regardless of your current circumstances, Does Grace Grow Best in Winter? will help you perceive God’s purpose in suffering, receive God’s grace in trials, and draw near to our great high priest, who suffered the unimaginable horrors of the cross for us.

Here is a succinct yet thoroughly Biblical treatment of suffering.  It does not aim at being simply sentimental, or inspirational but rather faithful to Scripture and therefore lastingly beneficial.

Remembering the mystery of God’s providence redirects our attention from why to God.  Though we seek answers to our question of why we suffer, God brings comfort by answering the question of who is mysteriously working in our suffering.

Jesus suffered without us.  We may be tempted to think that Christ cannot understand our particular situation.  We may assume that there is some point of discontinuity between our experience and his that makes it impossible for him to really sympathize with us.  But here is the glorious news.  It is precisely because there is discontinuity between you experience and Jesus’ experience that he is able to sympathize with you in all things.  In fact, Jesus has experienced something that, by God’s grace, the Christian will never have to experience.

Readability: 1

Length: 226 pgs

Author: Jerry Bridges

If an author impacts me both with the ugliness of sin and the beauty of the atonement I am deeply thankful for them.  I always exit a Jerry Bridges book extremely thankful.  This sequel to The Pursuit of Holiness is no exception.

In a way The Practice of Godliness is the positive of his excellent book Respectable Sins.  After laying the foundation that godliness is rooted in devotion towards God he goes on to cover the various godly traits such as joy, holiness, contentment, humility, thankfulness, and the fruit of the Spirit.

The practice of godliness is an exercise or discipline that focuses on God.  From this Godward attitude arises the character and conduct that we usually think of as godliness.  So often we try to develop Christian character and conduct without taking the time to walk with Him and develop a relationship with Him.  This is impossible to do.

Where can we find the time for quality Bible study?  I once heard that question asked of a chief of surgery in a large hospital.  Twenty-five years later, his answer continues to challenge me.  He looked his questioner squarely in the eye and said, “You always find time for what is important to you.”  How important is the practice of godliness to you?  Is it important enough to take priority over television, books, magazines, recreation, and a score of activities that we all somehow find time to engage in?

Some virtues of Christian character, such as holiness, love, and faithfulness, are godly traits because they reflect the character of God.  They are godlike qualities.  Other virtues are godly traits because they acknowledge and exalt the character of God.  They are God-centered qualities that enhance our devotion to God.  Such are the virtues of humility, contentment, and thankfulness.  In humility we acknowledge God’s majesty, in contentment His grace, in thankfulness His goodness.

[S]o often when we sin we are more vexed at the lowering of our self –esteem than we are grieved at God’s dishonor.

Readability: 1

Length: 130 pgs

Author: Steve Lawson

You may not believe me, due to the recommending of books on preaching, but I do try to exercise reserve in the books I encourage you to read.  For those who faithfully sit in the pew eager to feast on God’s preached word you should be as desirous to know what is the soul and essence of preaching as you are to hear it.  Don’t just listen to it, know what it is to be.  Many think they have heard the preaching of God’s word when they have heard nothing of the sort.  Not only should you know what true preaching is so that you can identify it, but so that you can rightly pray for the preacher.  I am glad to know I am not alone in this assessment.  Steve Lawson writes in the introduction to the Expository Genius of John Calvin:

If you are a preacher or teacher may you be challenged to a higher standard in you handling of the Word.  If you are a supporter of one called to this ministry, may you know how best to pray.

Take up this little book, read, pray, and yearn for the adulterated heralding of the gospel.

Exposition is being replaced with entertainment, preaching with performance, doctrine with drama, and theology with theatrics.  Desperately does the modern-day church need to recover its way and return to the pulpit that is Bible-based, Christ-centered, and life-changing.  God has always been pleased to honor His Word – especially his Word preached.  The greatest seasons of church history – those eras of widespread reformation and great awakening – have been those epochs in which God-fearing men took the inspired Word and unashamedly preached it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

‘Their [ministers’] whole task is limited to the ministry of God’s Word; their whole wisdom to the knowledge of His Word; their whole eloquence, to its proclamation.’ – Calvin

‘Let the pastors boldly dare all things by the word of God, of which they are constituted administrators.  Let them constrain all the power, glory, and excellence of the world to give place to and to obey the divine majesty of this Word.  Let them enjoin everyone by it, from the highest to the lowest. Let them edify the body of Christ.  Let them devastate Satan’s reign.  Let them pasture the sheep, kill the wolves, instruct and exhort the rebellious. Let them bind and loose thunder and lightning, if necessary, but let them do all according to the Word of God.’ – Calvin

A sermon rises no higher than a preacher’s soul before God.

‘We want again Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitefields, men fit to mark eras, whose names breathe terror in our foemen’s ears. We have dire need of such. Whence will they come to us? They are the gift of Jesus Christ to the church, and will come in due time. He has power to give back again a golden age of preachers, and when the good old truth is one more preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live coal from off the alter, this shall be the instrument in the hand of the Spirit for bringing about a great and thorough revival of religion in the land. . . .

 I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear it. The moment the church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to receive and bless His churches.” – Charles Spurgeon

Readability: 2

Length: 264 pgs

Author: Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stewart

I do not agree with everything Fee and Stuart write here, most critically I disagree with Fee’s translation philosophy.  Still the benefits and skills you would gain by reading it are worth commending it.  Reading How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth would go a long way to correcting many poor ways of reading the scripture such as asking it questions it was not meant to answer, reading it sentimentally, and flip and pickin’.

Interpretation that aims at, or thrives on, uniqueness, can usually be attributed to pride (an attempt to ‘out clever’ the rest of the world), a false understanding of spirituality (wherein the Bible is full of deep truths waiting to be mined by the spiritually sensitive person with special insight), or vested interests (the need to support a theological bias, especially in dealing with texts that seem to go against that bias). Unique interpretations are usually wrong. This is not to say that the correct understanding of a text may not often seem unique to someone who hears it for the first time. But it is to say that uniqueness is not the aim of our task.

The aim of good interpretation is simple: to get at the “plain meaning of the text.” And the most important ingredient one brings to that task is enlightened common sense. The test of good interpretation is that it makes good sense of the text. Correct interpretation, therefore, brings relief to the mind as well as a prick or prod to the heart.