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Book Review

In Blog, Book Reviews, Church on
July 14, 2024

A Short Guide to Church

It’s becoming increasingly common for Christians to skip church on Sundays. There are numerous reasons for this. Some are traveling on Sunday mornings, whether that be for work, for pleasure, or for their children’s sports tournaments. Others have such busy lives that they just want to sleep in and rest on their one day off from other responsibilities. Some have been hurt by a church in the past and don’t want to find a new church to attend, lest they be hurt again. And still others don’t see a need at all to go to Sunday worship services (after all, the Church isn’t a building, right?).

According to Ligonier’s The State of Theology survey in 2022, forty-four percent of professing Evangelicals do not believe that every Christian is obligated to join a local church, and fifty-six percent believe that worshipping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regular church attendance.[1] This means that about half of self-proclaimed Evangelical believers today do not believe it’s necessary for Christians to attend church regularly or become a member of a local church. This fact is both alarming and problematic, and it’s one reason why Dean Inserra wrote his newest book, A Short Guide to Church.

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In Attributes of God, Blog, Book Reviews on
April 14, 2024

The Kindness of God

We live in a rather cruel world, don’t we? This isn’t exactly a surprise. Ever since the Garden of Eden, our earth has been permanently marred and mutilated by sin and the sinful choices of mankind. But this doesn’t make it any easier to watch the horrible events that take place on a daily basis. To watch young women with bright futures be assaulted or murdered by wicked criminals. To watch foreign military forces bomb civilian areas in neighboring nations. To watch our loved ones become so hopeless that they turn to drugs, drinking, debt, or even their own death.

When we observe all that happens in our world as it rotates on its axis, it can be difficult to look upon all that cruelty, wickedness, and sin and remember the goodness and kindness of God. It calls up that age-old question we all consider from time to time—“How can a God that is truly good allow such bad things to happen?” But Nate Pickowicz wrote his newest book, The Kindness of God, to remind us of how we can see and behold God’s kindness in nearly every aspect of our lives.

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In Blog, Book Reviews, Spiritual Disciplines on
November 21, 2023

Memorizing Scripture

I’ve always been a competitive person, even as a child. I always wanted to win. I always wanted to be the best. And this manifested itself in many areas of my life—in my schoolwork, in playing games with family and friends, and in memorizing Scripture.

I grew up going to church every Sunday, and our children’s ministry did weekly Scripture memory challenges. There was a different verse each week, and if you recited the verse to your Sunday School teacher, you could pick a small candy or prize from a treasure box. Then, if you recited a certain number of verses throughout the year, you could win a special trophy to commemorate the achievement. Like I said, I was a competitive child who was very reward-motivated, so I did my best to memorize as many Bible verses as I possibly could so I could get a lot of treasure box prizes and eventually earn a nice, big trophy at the end of the year (and I succeeded at this for multiple years).

While I am thankful to have gone to a church that prioritized children learning and memorizing Scripture (there are some verses I memorized as a child that I can still remember today!), I’m afraid this method of rewarding the quantity of verses recited gave me and likely many other children the wrong impression of the purpose of Scripture memorization. As Glenna Marshall writes in her new book, memorizing Scripture is about more than information or recitation—

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In Blog, Book Reviews, Jesus on
August 14, 2023

The Character of Christ

Many have tried to argue that the Bible is a guidebook, a road map to this thing called life. If you follow its directions and obey its instructions, then you will be a successful Christian and be well on your way to “good and faithful servant” status.

Of course, this isn’t quite accurate. The Bible is a lot more than just a record of dos and don’ts. It’s the inspired and inerrant Word of God, God’s story of His redemption of mankind. Yes, it contains instruction and guidance, but it also includes hero stories, and handwritten letters, and fulfilled prophecies. Scripture is more than a bunch of rules; it’s a multi-genre book the reveals to us the nature, character, and desires of the God who creates, sustains, and saves us.

And yet, we—especially those of us living in a Western context—still tend to treat what’s written in the Bible as a to-do list, checking off the commands and behaviors that we’re pretty good at and toiling to please God in the areas in which we are lacking. This habit can easily cause us to overlook certain aspects of the Christian life or become weary when we find ourselves unable to overcome our vices. But Jonathan Landry Cruse argues in his book, The Character of Christ, that instead of crossing off items on our scriptural to-do list, we ought to fix our eyes of Jesus and imitate Him.

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In Blog, Book Reviews, Busyness on
July 17, 2023

All Who Are Weary

Busyness seems to be the hallmark of our society. Everybody is busy. Everybody is quickly moving from one thing to the next, barely having a moment to just pause and take a breath. Our daily schedules are packed full, and if we aren’t constantly doing something, we feel as if we won’t be able to accomplish everything we need or want to do.

But after a while, this constant busyness begins to weigh us down. We become tired, weary, burdened by all the priorities and responsibilities we’ve put upon ourselves. And when we allow this weariness to fester in our lives without seeking any rest or relief, it often morphs into anxiety, depression, or a host of other negative side effects.

As believers, we don’t have to sit in this weariness. We don’t have to stay in the anxiety and depression because we have a Savior who loves us, and cares for us, and who has offered to take our burdens upon Himself. What exactly does this look like? Well, Sarah Hauser elaborates on this process in her new book, All Who Are Weary.

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