Resources to Help Your Understanding of the Old Testament

This past Sunday morning, I preached a sermon titled "Christ, the Christian, and the Old Testament" from Matthew 5:17-18. In that sermon, I encouraged our congregation to make a renewed commitment to a more regular reading of the Old Testament and to see all the ways it's fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

As a follow-up and as an effort to assist in that task, I thought I would recommend a few resources that I have found helpful for developing a better understanding of the Old Testament and for seeing its fulfillment in Christ. The first two books are great reference works that provide a book-by-book survey of the Old Testament. The Demptser volume is a theology of the Hebrew Bible. And the others are all brief paperbacks oriented toward helping us understand the Old Testament as ultimately fulfilled in and through Jesus.

• An Introduction to the Old Testament, Tremper Longman III and Raymond Dillard

• Old Testament Theology, Paul House

• Dominion and Dynasty, Stephen Dempster 

• Gospel and Kingdom, Graeme Goldsworthy 

• The Scriptures Testify About Me, D.A. Carson

• The Unfolding Mystery, Edmund Clowney 

• What Is Biblical Theology?, Jim Hamilton

• God's Big Picture, Vaughan Roberts 

Recommended Books to Read

At the beginning of each year, I try and provide our church with a recommended reading list of what I consider to be some of the best books published in the previous year. The list includes a few books from various genres and covers a number of different categories.

To see this year's list, go here and click on the link at the bottom of the page.

Two New Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading

Here are a couple of new books that I'm looking forward to reading:

What Is Biblical Theology? A Guide to the Bible's Story, Symbolism, and Patterns, Jim Hamilton 

The Bible recounts a single story—one that began at creation, encompasses our lives today, and will continue till Christ’s return and beyond. In What Is Biblical Theology?, Jim Hamilton introduces us to this narrative, helping us understand the worldview of the biblical writers so that we can read the Old and New Testaments as the original authors intended. Tracing the key patterns, symbols, and themes that bind the Bible together, this book will help you understand Scripture’s unified message and find your place in the great story of redemption.

The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts, Douglas Bond

The focus of this next volume in "The Long Line of Godly Men Profile Series" is upon the preeminent English hymn writer Isaac Watts. In an age of simplistic and repetitive worship songs, the church must not forget the Father of English Hymnody. In this profile of the great hymn writer, Douglas Bond writes that Watts life and words can enrich the lives and worship of Christians today. 

Are You "Crazy Busy"?

Many of us live our lives frantically, feeling like we are always in a hurry. It seems that there is never enough time to do all that we need to do. In fact, you might be thinking to yourself at this very moment, “I really don’t have time to read this right now. I have too much to do.”

If that sounds like your life, then you need to get your hands on a copy of Kevin DeYoung’s new book, Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem. It's a brief, well-written, humorous book about busyness, infused with common sense as well as biblical and theological wisdom.

Here's the gist (but I really do recommend reading it yourself...unless you're just too busy!).

THREE DANGERS OF BUSYNESS 

DeYoung begins by discussing three dangers that we must be aware of:

1. Busyness can ruin your joy 
2. Busyness can rob your heart 
3. Busyness can cover up the rot in your soul 

While busyness can certainly have a negative effect on our physical bodies, the most serious threats are spiritual. Put simply, busyness sets our souls at risk.

SEVEN DIAGNOSES TO CONSIDER

The next section of the book deals with seven different diagnoses of busyness.

1. You are beset with many manifestations of pride (i.e., people-pleasing, pats on the back, performance, possessions, proving yourself, pity, power, perfectionism, prestige, posting [social media]). 
2. You are trying to do what God does not expect you to do (helpful counsel for those of us who think we need to do everything and feel guilty because we can’t). 
3. You can't serve others without setting priorities (everything we can do is not everything we ought to do). 
4. You need to stop freaking out about your kids. Parents, consider these quotes: “[O]ne of the best things we can do for our kids is to find a way to stop being so frantic and frazzled” and “Our children are suffering from ‘secondhand stress.’” 
5.  You are letting the screen strangle your soul (“For many of us, the Web is like The Eagles' Hotel California: we can check out any time we like, but we can never leave”). 
6. You'd better rest yourself before you wreck yourself (great discussion on the importance of rhythm and routine to our daily and weekly lives, the importance of sleep, and the importance of the Sabbath). 
7.  You suffer more because you don't expect to suffer at all. (We're going to be busy if we're serving God and others, so we must remember that to serve is to suffer.) 

ONE THING YOU MUST DO 

The book ends with a reminder that there is one thing we must do to counteract the crazy busyness of our lives: we must devote ourselves to the Word of God and prayer. As DeYoung himself testifies, “I can tell you that no single practice brings more peace and discipline to life than sitting at the feet of Jesus.” What he states on the last page of the book sums it up well: “We won't say 'no' to more craziness until we can say 'yes' to more Jesus.” Amen!

Packer Asks, "Have You Yourself, I Wonder, Read It Yet?"

J. I. Packer offers many of us a gentle rebuke:

For two centuries Pilgrim’s Progress was the best-read book, after the Bible, in all Christendom, but sadly it is not so today. 

When I ask my classes of young and youngish evangelicals, as I often do, who has read Pilgrim’s Progress, not a quarter of the hands go up. 

Yet our rapport with fantasy writing, plus our lack of grip on the searching, humbling, edifying truths about spiritual life that the Puritans understood so well, surely mean that the time is ripe for us to dust off Pilgrim’s Progress and start reading it again. 

Certainly, it would be great gain for modern Christians if Bunyan’s masterpiece came back into its own in our day. 

Have you yourself, I wonder, read it yet?

Personally, I like the updated version of Pilgrim's Progress from Crossway, edited by C.J. Lovik.

HT: JT

That "Old Book Smell"

The Smithsonian Magazine on why old books smell the way they do:

Smell is chemistry, and the chemistry of old books gives your cherished tomes their scent. As a book ages, the chemical compounds used—the glue, the paper, the ink–begin to break down. And, as they do, they release volatile compounds—the source of the smell. A common smell of old books, says the International League for Antiquarian Booksellers, is a hint of vanilla: “Lignin, which is present in all wood-based paper, is closely related to vanillin. As it breaks down, the lignin grants old books that faint vanilla scent.”

A study in 2009 looked into the smell of old books, finding that the complex scent was a mix of “hundreds of so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the air from the paper,” says the Telegraph. Here’s how Matija Strlic, the lead scientist behind that study, described the smell of an old book:

A combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness, this unmistakable smell is as much a part of the book as its contents.

Highly Recommended Book for Preachers

This new book by Gary Millar and Phil Campbell, Saving Eutychus: How to Preach God's Word and Keep People Awake, comes highly recommended.  Just listen to these endorsements:

“I have read books on how to make sure your sermon is interesting, and I have read books on how to make sure your sermon is faithful to the text, but this book wants your sermon to be both. If I could, I would make this little book mandatory reading for seminarians everywhere, and then urge them to read it a couple more times during the course of their ministry. It avoids cutesy and manipulative suggestions, and makes its practical points while urging integrity, faithfulness, and imagination. Many books on preaching are published every year; this one is a "must.”
- D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“This book teems with ‘plusses’: it is short (as a tome that takes Eutychus as its poster boy must be); it is stretching (the authors force one to deal with longer texts—and leave one asking, “Why can’t I summarize extended passages like that?”); it is specific (they include actual sermons with critique); it is searching (in case you skip the first chapter, ‘pray’ occurs eight times in the conclusion); and stirring (you still want to preach when you’ve finished reading). If you don’t buy the book, don’t cry if Eutychus isn’t saved!”
- Dale Ralph Davis, Bible expositor and author

“Millar and Campbell write with much wit and wisdom for the sake of our listeners. At some point every preacher must decide whether to preach for the regard of one’s peers or for the welfare of Christ’s people. Millar and Campbell have obviously decided for the latter and give much sound advice for the rest of us to do the same.”
- Bryan Chapell, Chancellor, Covenant Theological Seminary

“Two men who would never be deadly boring or dull are Gary Millar and Phil Campbell, and in this book they use their lively wit to help other preachers keep Eutychus awake. More importantly, they are united in their understanding of and commitment to the task of making God's word known. I pray this book will be of benefit to both preachers and congregations.”
- Phillip D Jensen, Dean of Sydney, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, NSW

“This book deserves to be included in the ‘must read’ category for preachers. It is readable, which always helps! And, as we would expect, it is biblical and practical. But it is also funny and forthright in a way that made me re-evaluate my preaching and resolve with God’s help to improve. This is a different book from Lloyd-Jones’ Preaching and Preachers and Between Two Worlds by John Stott, but it may prove to be just as influential.”
- Alistair Begg, Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Cleveland, OH

  

2 New Books Related to Worship

Here are two new books related to worship that I look forward to reading:

Rhythms of Grace: How the Church's Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel, Mike Cosper

Is it singing? A church service? All of life? Helping Christians think more theologically about the nature of true worship, Rhythms of Grace shows how the gospel is all about worship and worship is all about the gospel. Mike Cosper ultimately answers the question: What is worship?

Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works, James K. A. Smith

How does worship work? How exactly does liturgical formation shape us? What are the dynamics of such transformation? In the second of James K. A. Smith's three-volume theology of culture, the author expands and deepens the analysis of cultural liturgies and Christian worship he developed in his well-received Desiring the Kingdom. He helps us understand and appreciate the bodily basis of habit formation and how liturgical formation--both "secular" and Christian--affects our fundamental orientation to the world. Worship "works" by leveraging our bodies to transform our imagination, and it does this through stories we understand on a register that is closer to body than mind. This has critical implications for how we think about Christian formation.

Is "No Creed but the Bible" Actually Unbiblical?

Carl Trueman, who I always find enjoyable and challenging (even when I don't agree with him), has just written a new book aimed primarily at his evangelical friends in non-confessional or non-creedal traditions, attempting to help them see the need for creeds and confessions.  In this new book, The Creedal Imperative, he writes:

Christians are not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who do not; rather, they are divided between those who have public creeds and confessions which are written down and exist as public documents, subject to public scrutiny, evaluation, and critique; and those who have private creeds and confessions which are often improvised, unwritten, and thus not open to public scrutiny, not susceptible to evaluation and, crucially and ironically, not subject to testing by scripture to see whether they are true or not.

He concludes the first chapter with a gentle challenge to anti-confessional and anti-creedal evangelicals:

I conclude this chapter by posing a challenge to those who, in  their earnest desire to be faithful to Scripture as the supreme authority of faith and life, claim that they have no creed but the Bible. Reflect critically on the cultural forces that are certainly consonant with holding such a position and ask yourself whether they have perhaps reinforced your antipathy to creeds and confessions in a way that is not directly related to the Bible’s own teaching at all. Then, setting aside for just a moment your sincere convictions on this matter, read the rest of this book and see whether creeds and confessions might not actually provide you with a better way of preserving precisely those aspects of biblical, Christian faith which are most valuable to you and which you passionately wish to communicate to your church.

For those evangelicals who are not particularly confessional in their thinking, this book may be a helpful and challenging read. 

HT: JT

Poetry and Melody

The following quote is from a book about music recently given to me by a church member who is an avid reader and fellow poetry lover.  While the author doesn't seem to completely share our biblical worldview (especially as it relates to creation and evolution), he does make some fascinating observations and insights. 

In the opening chapter, he draws a connection between poetry and music, arguing that poetry is rhythmic, melodious, and serves as a form of music.  I couldn't agree more.  Here's the way he states it:  

[W]hatever its form, written poetry is characterized by a kind of music.  Accent structures in words naturally make a sort of melody.  In the word melody itself the first syllable is stressed, which makes it louder than the others, and most native English speakers will give it a higher pitch than other syllables.  The word melody has a melody!  Good poetry plays with speech sounds to create a pleasing set of pitch patterns, and good poetry contains rhythmic groupings that are songlike.  When a poem succeeds, it is a sensual experience - the way the words feel in the mouth of the speaker and the way they sound in the ears of the hearer are part of the encounter.  Unlike prose, most poems ask to be read aloud.  This is why poetry lovers usually do so.  Just reading the poem is not enough.  The reader needs to feel the rhythms.

--Daniel J. Levitin, The World in Six Songs

Let Your Books Be Your Friends

A great quote passed on to me by a church member who is a fellow book-lover:

If you cannot read all your books, at any rate...peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are.  Let them be your friends; let them be your acquaintances.

--Winston Churchill 

Great Quote on Reading

I had a church member bring this quote to my attention, and it's just too good not to share here.

"A good book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading." --William Styron

Gerald Bray's New Biblical and Systematic Theology

My former professor, Gerald Bray, has just published a new biblical and systematic theology with Crossway titled God Is Love.

It has received numerous endorsements:

"Gerald Bray is one of our leading evangelical scholars and teachers and he has given us here a magisterial overview of Christian belief and doctrine. A great example of theology in the service of the church."
--Timothy George

"Soaked in the depth and breadth of the Christian tradition, Gerald Bray brings a rich wisdom to his exceedingly accessible systematic theology. Freshly organizing his approach around love, Bray does not fall into cheap sentimentality, but instead carefully teases out the drama and story of divine love and how it should inform our understanding of countless areas of theology and life. Students and laity in particular will find this volume immensely helpful, and I heartily recommend it to all!"
--Kelly Kapic

"Here you'll find a firm place to stand to take in the full panorama of Christian belief—centered around the wonderful and worship-inspiring truth of the love of God, and firmly anchored in the sure and certain word of God. If you've read Lewis's Mere Christianity or Stott's Basic Christianity and you long to know more, then you're ready to move on to Gerald Bray's God Is Love."
--Stephen Nichols

"God Is Love is a warm, conversational, and contemporary systematic theology written by one of evangelicalism's leading thinkers. But it is much more. It is biblically saturated, historically rooted theological wisdom for the people of God."
--Christopher Morgan

"Gerald Bray delivers on his promise—he teaches Christians about the God who is love and about the love that this triune God shows to others. He keeps this promise by pointing insistently to God's gracious speech in the Bible, and by showing consistently how it all hangs together in the story of this God and his gospel. This book is a gripping lesson from a master teacher."
--Michael Allen

Click here to see the Table of Contents and read the first chapter.

Gerald Bray (DLitt, University of Paris-Sorbonne) is a research professor at Beeson Divinity School and director of research for the Latimer Trust. He is a prolific writer and has authored or edited numerous books, including The Doctrine of God and Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present.

A Guide to Christ-Focused Reading of Scripture

For those of you who preach or teach the Bible (or anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the Bible), Michael Williams' new book, How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens: A Guide to Christ-Focused Reading of Scripture, looks to be a very helpful resource.

If you want to read a sample chapter, the one on Genesis is available here.

There is a brief chapter for every book of the Bible, and each chapter contains the following:

• a succinct statement of the theme of that book
• an explanation of how that theme finds its focus in Christ
• a brief discussion of how the New Testament treats that theme as fulfilled in Christ
• suggestions for contemporary implications

Download Bloodlines for Free

Desiring God Ministries has generously made John Piper's recent book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, available as a free download. Click here for the details.

Whether or not you affirm Piper's theological convictions regarding Calvinism (which are defined and defended in the middle section of the book), the chapters on the front end and back end are well worth the read...especially when it's free.

New Book on Adoption and Orphan Care

Interested in adoption? In the process of adoption? Want to know how you can care for orphans? Wondering how you can approach this issue in a gospel-centered way? If so, Tony Merida and Rick Morton have written a new book you might want to check out - Orphanology: Awakening to Gospel-Centered Adoption and Orphan Care.

Thanks to Ben Mitchell for making me aware of this book.

New Book on the Church Fathers

Michael Haykin has written a new book that looks to be a helpful and accessible introduction to the Church Fathers. If you want to gain some insight on this important period of the church's history, this book would be a very good starting point.

Here are a few recommendations:

“Haykin has given us a user-friendly introduction to the early centuries of the Christian church. He illustrates the key elements of the church’s teaching by referring to the lives and teachings of major figures of the time, most of whom are little known to nonspecialists. Ordinary people need to know about these things, and this book is a great place to begin.”

-Gerald Bray, Research Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School

“This gem of a study sparkles with polished clarity. Michael Haykin has skillfully unearthed buried treasures among early church leaders. As an experienced guide, he has drawn from his own personal journey and decades of scholarly research. He presents valuable Patristic insights into apologetic engagement, missional work, spiritual formation, use of Scripture, theological discourse, communal worship, personal piety, and approaches to suffering and martyrdom. From the apostolic fathers to the apostle to Ireland, Haykin’s investigations masterfully apply classical wisdom to contemporary concerns.”

-Paul Hartog, Associate Professor, Faith Baptist Theological Seminary

Mohler - "On Getting Boys to Read"

Al Mohler offers further reflections on Thomas Spence's article, "How To Raise Boys Who Read," in The Wall Street Journal. Here's a brief excerpt:

The most direct enemies of reading in the lives of today’s boys are video games and digital media. These devices crowd out time and attention at the expense of reading. Spence cites one set of parents who tried to bribe their 13-year-old son to read by offering video games as a reward. Spence is exactly right — don’t reward with video games. Instead, take the games away. If parents do not restrict time spent with digital devices, boys will never learn to read and to love reading.

Read the entire thing here.

Phillip Jensen Book on Preaching

Phillip Jensen - the Australian Anglican, mastermind behind Matthias Media, and wonderful example of a faithful preaching ministry - has a new book on preaching, The Archer and the Arrow: Preaching the Very Words of God.

Click here to read some of the blurbs for this new book.

Click here to read Tim Challies' overview of the book.

A Woefully Inadequate Understanding of the Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The following quote (a personal confession by Art Azurdia in his book, Spirit Empowered Preaching) is one I can certainly relate to. And my guess is that many of my fellow evangelical pastors can too.

By way of personal reflection I must say that it has been painful for me to acknowledge my woefully inadequate understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. To be brutally honest, over the years my concern has been directed more toward avoiding charismatic excesses than it has been toward rightfully acknowledging the sovereign Spirit as He presents Himself on the pages of His own scriptures. Consequently, the majority of my efforts in pneumatology [the study of the Spirit] have been devoted to establishing what the Spirit does not do, almost to the complete exclusion of establishing the magnificence of His person and the indispensability of His ministry in any positive way (italics mine).

Let us move beyond focusing just on what the Holy Spirit does not do, and let us make every effort to establish the magnificence of His person and the indispensability of His ministry!