Another BookSneeze book. The Jesus You Can’t Ignore by John MacArthur.

I received this book in August last year and kept putting off reading it. For a few reasons – it seemed it would require paying attention and taking notes and rethinking some of my preferred attitudes about discussing the truths of the Bible. It eventually became very easy to put it aside and even put it away on the shelves. But I never really forgot it and knew I did want to read it. If this is biblical, I desire to know that and see it. I finally picked it up this month. It was the right fit, I have eagerly read through it over the past week.

This book looks at the ministry of Jesus, especially his interactions with the Pharisees and Scribes, mainly pointing out His insistence on teaching the truth even when it was in contradiction to what the religious leaders were teaching. In fact, especially when it was in contradiction to what they were teaching.

It is hard to hold onto the idea of the meek and mild Jesus if you read the gospels very much at all. This book took that even deeper. I will not read the Sermon on the Mount the same way again. MacArthur presents the encounters of Jesus with the multitudes and specifically with the members of the Sanhedrin and shows how Jesus never watered down his message or tried to make it more palatable. He told them what they needed to hear and often in a confrontational manner because it was the way they needed to hear it.

Throughout the book, and especially in the Epilogue, MacArthur addresses concerns that we aren’t perfect like Jesus and that he is not telling us we should be belligerent about everything. He is stressing that the truth of the gospel cannot be corrupted or twisted just to make people comfortable. He references the writings of Paul and the Revelations of John as further evidence that false teaching is not to be tolerated.

The structure of the book, each chapter focusing on one or two encounters and how it was initiated by Jesus, keeps drawing the reader in, building up to the inevitable ending. The writing was easy to read but never condescending. Terms and traditions that need to be understood are explained well. Attitudes and responses are reflected in the words he uses. The Bible is the source for everything he presents. I recommend this book for personal study and even for group study to discuss how we are to stand firm in our faith and address the internal threats of false teaching.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I received a review copy of Bound & Determined: Christian Men and Women In Partnership by Jeanene Reese. The book is scheduled to be published in September by Leafwood Publishers and will be 192 pages. The copy I received was a spiral bound copy.

The description of the book definitely intrigued me. Written for “Christians actively involved in mixed-gender partnerships, whether they hold leadership positions or simply collaborate in groups at work or in church. The author takes seriously biblical passages about gender and invites hard questions from readers, making this a solid resource for individuals and groups alike.”

She delivers on that. The writing style is clear and readable. This is not a lecture or a technical thesis. It is a conversation. She touches on some complex and even controversial topics, but her explanations of what the Bible says, what other experts say, and how all of that information contributes to understanding and taking action is all well put. She doesn’t try to say more or make explicit things that the Bible doesn’t say or make explicit. But she does raise the possibility that some common perceptions are based more on culture or tradition than what the Bible actually says.

As I expected and as I hinted above, she spends some time discussing the roles of men and women and how our understanding of those roles affects how we participate in ministries and partnerships. But she has so much more to say. There are other issues to be addressed, such as communication, handling conflict, offering and receiving grace and forgiveness. She treats all of these without repeating the same usual things we know, but going deeper and further with them to attitudes and actions that Christians should adopt and work to make the basis for relationships.

She discusses our individual responsibility for our own behavior, how to work with others even when they won’t accept personal responsibility for their behavior, and things the church should do to encourage healthy partnerships. While she does discuss gender, much of what she covers applies to groups of women or groups of men. But one of the most useful things this book does is encourage more mixed groups – men and women working together to accomplish great things.

This book comes with a study guide, questions to consider for each chapter. I have seen plenty of study guides that did not really contribute any further value to the book. I am happy to report I found the study guide questions to be a great help in clarifying and reinforcing the points made in the chapter and provide an environment for thinking through to the next level of understanding of a topic, see how it affects and changes our beliefs and positions on these things. It challenges the reader to really put the concepts into practice.

I recommend this book. I think it is a balanced and biblical book that provides a starting point for even further thought in the areas of gender and partnership and forgiveness.

The Bound & Determined sell sheet with further information about the book.

I received an opportunity to read and review Simon’s Crossing by Charles William Asher and Dennis Patrick Slattery.  Asher is an Episcopal priest, and he has written this story using Simon the Cyrene as the main character. This is a imagining of what the man might have been like, why he was in Jerusalem, and how carrying the cross for Christ along the road to Golgotha may have affected his life.

The story is interesting, as we get to know Simon’s wife and his two sons, Alexander and Rufus. We also see the brutal rule of the Romans and the struggles of the Jews of the time. Much of the Bible story and church history is also included. We meet Veronica, Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, as well as Joseph of Arimathea and others. The different aspects of the crowd responding to Pontius Pilate and along the long walk are all shown and described well. The origin of some of the holy relics are also described.

The subject and the confusion and the purpose of the crucifixion are handled well in this novel. I am not Episcopal (or Catholic) so I don’t hold to all the traditions told as part of the story, but that didn’t detract in any way. By focusing on Simon, we see the struggle and pain of Jesus from a very understandable point of view, and we watch Simon’s perspective change as he suffers in such close intimacy with Jesus.

Some of the writing style was not as tight as it could be, with some shifts of topic being disjointed and repetitive in an attempt to reinforce the emotions and struggles. But it is a very readable story.

Another BookSneeze book. The Portable Patriot, edited by Joel Miller and Kristen Parrish, .

This book looked interesting, collecting documents, speeches, and even sermons that “compose the American soul” as the subtitle says. The book is small (hence the portable title) with the ragged cut pages that make a book feel older.  Before each entry is a short description of the person or the event, placing it in context of the history of the nation.

The contents are broken out by time period, from the Mayflower and other beginnings, just before the revolution, during the revolution, the founding, and the first documents of the republic. They have fit a lot of information in here. Of course the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, even some selections from the Federalist Papers. Plus any other writings not as well known. I see us referring to this book for years. As a former home schooler, I can see it being a cool resource for American History.

But I must admit some disappointment. I didn’t think portable would mean it had to be quite so small. Everything runs in together and the descriptive text is really only a few sentences. It is all about the actual documents, but the font and page size doesn’t even make reading the documents easy. I’m not saying it had to be a text book, but I think a different format would have been more pleasurable to hold and read.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Another BookSneeze book. This time a practical book called Mind Your Own Mortgage by Robert Bernabe.

I liked this book. The information seemed sound and encouraging in an area of finances too many of us ignore. The writing was well done. The pages were not overcrowded, but had headers and sidebar quotes, and tables and diagrams that all helped to keep interest in what can be a boring subject. They also provided just the right support to demonstrate the points, without getting too crowded.

The book starts with a great overview of financial responsibility and why we should shop for a mortgage and treat it seriously. He also talks about the downside of consumer debt and pulls in some very good descriptions of what was happening before and during the recent economic crisis.

It contains some sound advice – shop for what you can afford, not what you qualify for. Buy on the total price, not the monthly payment. Pay attention and be in charge of the largest debt most people will ever have. This book was very timely as we are thinking of refinancing. We’ll definitely put the principles of this book and the tools at mindyourownmortgage.com to work.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”