Review: Revolutionary Work: What's the point of the 9 to 5

Revolutionary Work: What's the point of the 9 to 5 by William Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Taylor writes clearly and engages the reader with an easy-to-follow narrative. The book is targeted at every Christian, with the biblical principals while insightful and thought-provoking, easily comprehensible and applicable across denominations and theological camps. This book is highly relatable and illustrated with modern stories, accounts and anecdotes.

Indeed we all fall into either the I-have-to-survive-the-mundane-challenge-of-work or the I-give-my-all-to-work-while-neglecting-everything-else camps. I'd like not to spoil anything, because, at just over 100 pages, you too can read it even in a single sitting!

I finished the book feeling encouraged, challenged and with much to reflect how I can apply the biblical principles into life. I heartily recommend this title and would even consider ordering multiple copies to give away! It has been a long time since I enjoyed the read as much as I did in this small little book! In fact, I am regretful that I had not read it earlier. It also earns the rare award of 6 stars from me, and earns a place on my bookshelf! (As a serial book reviewer, I only keep those I found were most extraordinary while selling the rest)!

View all my reviews

Review: How Then Shall We Worship?: Biblical Principles to Guide Us Today

How Then Shall We Worship?: Biblical Principles to Guide Us Today by R.C. Sproul
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The title is a little of a misnomer - when I bought it I thought that this is an academic work that would address the styles of worship and discuss the different positions about it, but it turns out actually it is geared at the layman reader and explores worship a little more at the personal level than at the corporate setting. Also in a slight deviation from the main theme of worship, other topics like prayer, baptism and the Lord's supper are also discussed. If the title in subsequent revisions were changed to following Christ or living a Christian life, I would be happy to add at least 1 stars to the rating.

Sproul writes in the first person and provides an easy read with the conversational style for the opening chapters of the book. Thereafter, chapters 6-8 on the topic of baptism were excellent - it helped me understand the position of infant baptism for the first time! In contrast, Chapter 9-11 seemed to lack theological exhaustiveness (width) and substance (depth); after reading each chapter I felt a desire to have been persuaded more so I could agree with Sproul’s substantives.

Mercifully, in Chapter 12 (The sounds of worship), the excitement and endgame to starts to pick up, with the delightful church history juxtaposed against tradition from Scripture. It was a pleasant surprise to find a rather exhaustive study/discussion guide at the end of the book (because this too is not reflected on the cover). I’d like to say that this book has the potential to become a really great 5 Star title with minor tweaks to the titles, editing and by further elaboration in some chapters, but with Sproul’s passing in 2017, I doubt we would see that come to fruition.

View all my reviews

The mis-selling of a triumphalist Christianity

As I reflect on Carson's exposition on Pages 31-2, my heart breaks at how we have been m mis-selling Christianity to attract people to follow Christ and how far removed it has been removed from denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following him. If the premise at which one decides to become saved is to be as successful and high flying as a prominent Christian personality, then I am overwhelmed with worry at how such a believer will respond during times of trial and suffering. I shudder at this thought because I, once upon a time too, believed in a prosperity theology whereby my religion gave me the right to demand (through prayer) what God needed to give me or come through for me.

Oh Lord, forgive me for wrongfully presenting your gospel and making false promises to seekers on your behalf. Help us believers to communicate the perseverance and joy of submitting our wills to you, and to winsomely communicate a faithful understanding of how we relate to you to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Help us to love, minister to and journey with those of more humble and more elite backgrounds as us, and that we may point them to follow you, for the glory and praise of Jesus Christ I pray, amen!

The Cross and Christian Ministry

The Cross and Christian Ministry has 907 ratings and 73 reviews. Jordan said: Carson would say I totally missed the point of chapter three when I say I w...

This is a point that our generation cannot afford to ignore. Why is it that we constantly parade Christian athletes, media personalities, and pop singers? Why should we think that their opinions or their experiences of grace are of any more significance than those of any other believer? When we tell outsiders about people in our church, do we instantly think of the despised and the lowly who have become Christians, or do we love to impress people with the importance of the men and women who have become Christians? Modern Western evangelicalism is deeply infected with the virus of triumphalism, and the resulting illness destroys humility, minimizes grace, and offers far too much homage to the money and influence and "wisdom" of our day.

Review: The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians

The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians by D.A. Carson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Don Carson is my go-to guy when I'm looking to purchase NT commentaries (I consult his New Testament Commentary Survey) and I also enjoy listening to his expositional sermons. But why does this fanboy not give a 5 star rating? In short, the book was great but not exceptional.

While overall the content is classic Carson - relatively easy to follow, engaging, faithful to Scripture, thoroughly insightful and the stories/background explanations being ever so apt to illustrate archaic concepts - I felt that it would have been great for him to revise the content slightly. Being first published in 1993, the 2018 edition comes with a new cover but identical content. Carson would probably have been able to update a couple of illustrations or beef up the material with new nuggets of insight or a varied explanation to which he has since picked up... The lack of pictorial graphics or diagrams also make it a slight challenge to read for today's attention deficit readers.

The bite-sized expositions are still a great resource for sermon preparation and academic research, but I'll be sure to go to my digital edition rather than the print copy for easy cross-referencing to the biblical text!

I received this book from Baker Publishing Group's Blogger Review Program for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

View all my reviews

Review: God's New Society: The Message of Ephesians

God's New Society: The Message of Ephesians by John R.W. Stott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This commentary appears to deviate away from Stott’s usual high quality titles that are epitomised by clear exposition, engaging illustrations and deep theological reflection. Published in 1979, this book has blessed many generators of students, pastors and preachers prior to the publication of newer commentaries. An updating of the illustrations and language would be helpful in capturing the attention of modern readers and assisting in their comprehension of the biblical text. It would also be more useful if Stott transposed what he perceives to be poor translation choices against more popular modern translations such as the ESV, NLT or NIV – as compared to the older AV, RSV and NEB translations as found in the book. On the same note, the title’s age renders it unable to interact with modern scholarship that has since been published, and references are made to scholars whose names the present day reader would probably not be familiar with.

Before the advent of the excellent commentaries by Walter Liefeld's 1997 and Clinton Arnold's 2010 excellent commentaries utilise modern analogies and cite present world events. Liefeld’s IVPNTC commentary is superior in brevity and clarity – teachers and pastors would find it useful for lesson/sermon preparation. Arnold’s ZECNT commentary is superior in depth and theological reflection – advanced readers and scholars would find it useful. R Kent Hughes' 1990 title from the Preaching the Word Series is also superior exposition and has surpassed Stott’s title.

Amidst the book’s various issues, there are some timeless truths and reflections that are still relevant and helpful to reflect upon today. Looking back in time, this reviewer is heartened that in his exposition of Eph. 3:7, Stott extends grace to a movement he did not agree with or endorse, thereby effectively illustrating the point of the passage – that “the unity of the church is due to charis, God’s grace having reconciled us to himself; but the diversity of the church is due to charismata, God’s gifts distributed to church members”:

From this word charismata that the adjective ‘charismatic’ is derived. The so-called ‘charismatic movement’, although controversial in a number of its distinctive emphases, has without doubt been used by God to bring spiritual renewal to many churches and individual Christians. Nevertheless, we should register a biblical protest against the designation ‘charismatic movement’, whether its adherents themselves chose it or were given it. ‘Charismatic’ is not a term which can be accurately applied to any group or movement within the church, since according to the New Testament the whole church is a charismatic community. It is the body of Christ, every single member of which has a gift (charisma) to exercise or function to perform. (Pg. 155-6)

Furthermore, the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches today would do well to pay heed to and prevent much abuse from Stott’s timeless advice regarding God’s raising up of prophets and prophetesses (4:11) by “carefully test[ing] by Scripture and by the known character of the speaker, and that the regular, systematic, thoughtful exposition of the Bible is much more important for the building up of the people of God.” (Pg. 162-3).

This reviewer suggests that much of the abuse and misuse of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially regarding words of knowledge and ‘commands’ from church leaders, could be avoided if Holy Scripture is the lens by which all such words are examined by. A church would perhaps enjoy the best of the charismatic and reformed worlds – when they are fed a diet of faithful exposition of Scripture in the environment of expectant supernatural faith-expanding operation of the Holy Spirit in ministry of the lost and of the congregation.

View all my reviews

Review: God's Timing for Your Life: Seeing the Seasons of Your Life Through God's Eyes

God's Timing for Your Life: Seeing the Seasons of Your Life Through God's Eyes by Dutch Sheets
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This tiny little book provided a really easy and quick read! Weighing in at 60-odd pages, it is highly accessible and pitched at charismatic non-readers. I really enjoyed the many illustrations, though I doubted the veracity of some of them, which were probably more anecdotal.

I felt that some of the personal accounts could have been further elaborated, for example, I wondered what was the outcome of the rumours resulting in 40% of his congregation leaving on pages 30-1. I also felt that his excessive use of Greek undermined the utility of the book, because bible scholars with a working knowledge of Greek and Hebrew would often stick to explaining in english for the layperson to understand; it is often those who know little biblical languages that tend to cite word after word after word of Greek and Hebrew.

View all my reviews

Review: Acts of the Holy Spirit

Acts of the Holy Spirit by C. Peter Wagner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having read numerous scholarly commentaries (that are often a challenge to read because they are toward the deep end of the technical spectrum), I found this gem of a book to be highly accessible and most engaging; through Wagner's passionate writing, I caught a sense of how exciting the high-stakes events in the book of Acts were. The real-world illustrations and examples provided brought to life the conceptual and the theological; providing the reader with a glimpse of how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of believers today.

However, I felt that the quality of the scholarship diminished toward the final chapters. Wagner clarifies that as these sections were not the focus of his commentary, he thus skips through the penultimate sections of the book of Acts with less emphasis and fewer comments. I understand that decision he made, because at about 600 pages this book is already relatively unappealing to most laypeople and pastors; it is a pity that 3 volume version of this title is out of print because the bite sized chunks provide for a far easier read. Finally, it would be of great value should Wagner release a revised edition whereby interaction is made with the numerous commentaries that have been published in the recent years - for example Darrell Bock's BECNT (2007), David Peterson's PNTC (2009), Eckhard Schnabel's ZECNT (2012) and of course Craig Keener's massive non-series 4 volume work (2012-2015).

Nevertheless, I regard this book to be a 5 star (out of 5) classic and a most valuable title that has more than earned its place on my bookshelf (books with 1 to 4 stars would be sold off/donated). I thoroughly enjoyed the read - so much so that I bought a copy to keep (the copy I read was borrowed). In conclusion, because of the highly engaging and accessible content, I heartily recommend this book to laypeople, church leaders and pastors for the purposes of inspiration, study and application of principles from the book of Acts.

View all my reviews