Books
This page contains a variety of resources I have found useful or interesting. That includes everything from quotes and books to podcasts, videos, and tweets.
The Aging Brain: Proven Steps to Prevent Dementia and Sharpen Your Mind
by Timothy R. Jennings MD (Baker, 2018)
Fascinating and enlightening, The Aging Brain opened my eyes to more reasons to choose a healthy lifestyle. The book focuses primarily on countering the effects of dementia, and the good news is that we needn’t necessarily surrender to inevitability with regard to this disease of the brain. Healthy choices make a difference. Exercise, proper eating and sleeping remain essential, of course (but no mention of napping, which seemed an oversight in light of much research as to its benefits). But what seemed more surprising was Dr. Jenning’s inclusion of the spiritual and emotional life as essential to a healthy brain. This makes sense, since we are integrated beings. One part affects all parts.
The “Learning Points” and “Action Plan” at the end of each chapter proved essential reading after pages of medical terms. These summaries helped clear the fog and took the book from mere information to potential transformation.
An index would have proven helpful on a number of occasions.
Baker Compact Dictionary of Biblical Studies
by Tremper III Longman, Mark L. Strauss (Baker, 2018)
The Baker Compact Dictionary of Biblical Studies serves as a handy reference to understanding words and names, heroes and heretics, ancient and modern. Both scholars and skeptics find themselves listed in alphabetical order alongside terms from “abomination of desolation” to “Zoroastrianism.”
Concise, fair, and well-written, the little volume would prove more handy with a simple index of names, words, and page numbers. As a “dictionary” it doesn’t require an index, but the reader would benefit from scanning the contents at a glance.
30 Days in the Land of the Psalms
by Charles H. Dyer (Moody Publishers, 2017)
Many Christians read the Psalms every day but miss the fullness of their message. Why? The psalmists were poets, weaving images from the lands around them into the lines of Holy Scripture. Without a picture of what the Judean Wilderness looks like, or Masada, or the Mount of Olives, we read the words but miss so much of the message.
Dr. Charlie Dyer is one of the most gifted expositors of the Holy Land I’ve ever read. As you read 30 Days in the Land of the Psalms, you will picture the places of the poets.
This book will help you do more than merely read the Psalms.
You’ll see them.
I Am: A 60-Day Journey to Knowing Who You Are Because of Who He Is
by Michele Cushatt (Zondervan, 2017)
I love the way Michele Cushatt writes. Her pen never dips in a shallow inkwell but plunges in the depths of the real Christian life. Raw, real, and relevant, her words reflect the insight of a woman who has gone to the edge with God and found Him still secure.
Her latest book, I Am: A 60-Day Journey to Knowing Who You Are Because of Who He Is, offers us the next step beyond her excellent, first volume, Undone.
She shows us through her life of authentic weakness that the Lord’s love is often confusing and yet always enough.
Remember and Return: Rekindling Your Love for the Savior–A Devotional
by John MacArthur (Baker, 2016)
MacArthur’s new devotional, Remember and Return, is content pulled from his trade book, Simple Christianity. Each of these short, 31 chapters takes a thought from the book and introduces it with a Scripture verse and concludes with a “Daily Challenge,” a new, poignant paragraph that is really what transforms MacArthur’s older content into a devotional. The book has some wonderful quotes by other authors, most especially puritans like John Owen. Remember and Return really doesn’t read like a devotional, but more like a book of theological truth with a “challenge” each day to apply it.
Devotions for a Deeper Life: A Daily Devotional
by Oswald Chambers (Thomas Nelson, 2016)
A few authors seem to be given by God for daily devotionals. Oswald Chambers’ is such a writer, and this new volume, Devotions for a Deeper Life, shows the staying power of Chambers’ pen. Although most readers (including myself) have only read My Upmost for His Highest, these new devotionals, culled from content originally published in God’s Revivalist, read as fresh as those in Chambers’ well-known devotional. 365 excerpts also come with a Scripture verse, a thought for prayer, and a suggested Bible reading to go deeper.
Most daily devotionals are simply rehash, but this one pulls from the unpublished writings of one of our most-beloved writers and encourages us with fresh, new words.
Leadership Promises for Every Day: A Daily Devotional
by John C. Maxwell (Thomas Nelson, 2016)
One of the most practical of all of John C. Maxwell’s daily readings, Leadership Promises for Every Day, offers the simple wisdom we’ve come to respect and need from this gifted writer. Excerpts from many of John’s popular volumes, in addition to Bible verses that relate to leadership principles, combine to make this daily devotional a simple and inspiring way to grow in leadership skills a little each day. The placeholder ribbon and the leather-like cover are nice additions.
America at the Crossroads: Explosive Trends Shaping America’s Future and What You Can Do about It
by George Barna (Baker Publishing Group, 2016)
This new book by Christian pollster George Barna gives the latest facts about what America believes and trends that shape our future. Of course, anybody but an ostrich is well aware that America is in a moral nosedive. Barna simply reveals the fact with facts.
But America at the Crossroads isn’t just a book about facts and forecasts— it also includes Barna’s nudge on what we can do about it.
What Is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics
by R. C. Sproul (Baker Publishing Group, 2016)
This repackaged version of Sproul’s 1997 classic What is Reformed Theology? is, in Sproul’s own words, “a shorthand introduction to the crystallized essence of Reformation Theology.”
Much of what Sproul refers to as foundations of reformed theology might better be understood as the theology of the reformers—namely that it is centered on God, based on God’s Word alone, committed to faith alone, etc. After all, these tenets are also true of other theological systems outside of Reformed Theology.