Preaching Christ

Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell is a book about homiletics and hermeneutics. The book is separated into three parts and has a total of 11 chapters. There are also 12 Appendixes. The book is a hefty 400 pages long.

Section 1 covers principles for expository preaching. I found this section extremely helpful. I also found myself reading this section very quickly. One thing that stuck out to me in this section comes from chapter 1. On page 25 the author says “…the goal of preaching is not merely to impart information but to provide the means of transformation ordained by a sovereign God that will affect the lives and destines of eternal souls committed to a preacher’s spiritual care.” Very helpful and powerful.

Section 2 covers preparation of expository sermons. This is the practical nuts and bolts section. I had no problem reading chapter 5 which is the first chapter in this section but I found myself getting bogged down with chapters 6-9 that complete this section. It might have been me but I really did have a hard time reading through this section. The information and explanations were very good but for some reason I slowed and even stalled a few times.

Section 3 covers a theology of Christ centered messages. Here is again where I was able to dive in and read quickly and enjoyed what was written. Again very helpful information and lots of things to think about for example on page 312 the author writes “In Christ-centered preaching, the rules of Christian obedience do not change; the reasons do. Believers are exhorted to serve God in response to his sure mercy rather than in payment for his conditional favor.”

The appendixes cover topics such as “A philosophy of delivery and dress” to “Methods of preparation” and there is even a sample sermon as the last appendix.  

This is a wonderful book on preaching and sermon prep well worth reading and rereading. There is also a link below to a site where Mr. Chapell has taught this material and you can download the audio recordings.

Anyone who is a preacher or is preparing to be a full/part time preach really should read this book and listen to the lectures. Highly recommended!!

Audio lectures download

http://worldwide-classroom.com/courses/info/cm099/

You can buy this book Here, Here, and Here

Judaizers among us

The book “Yeshua a guide to the real Jesus and the original church” by Dr. Ron Moseley is 192 pages long made up of 9 main chapters.

The premise of the book is that we don’t know the REAL Jesus or the REAL original church if we don’t understand the Jewish/Hebrew background. The Church, Jesus, and the New Testament are said to be Jewish and we need to know all the intricacies in order to fully understand Christianity.

The book tries to make people feel like they are missing out on something if they don’t know all the Jewish background information but it even goes further than that by trying to prove that Jesus was just another Pharisee and that the Law/Torah has not been done away with. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 all deal with the Law/Torah and the Old and New Covenants. Many will be surprised by what they find in these chapters.

While there are some good and interesting things in this book related to the historical and cultural background of the New Testament I can’t recommend it to anyone except the most critical reader because the views that are just simply unbiblical and untrue.

It seemed that the author wants everyone to become ethnically Jewish in order to be real Christians. Whether or not that’s his intentions that’s the feel of the book. I can’t accept that I need to become a Jew in order to fully be a Christian. I think I recall Paul saying something like “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, neither male nor female in Christ.” Jesus is all I need!! Not Jewish rituals, the Torah, or the Jewish customs but Christ alone!!

There are far better background books that don’t Judaize. See the International Bible Encyclopedia (Or maybe the Zondervan Encyclopedia) or some of the works by N.T. Wright and others on first century Judaism (Second Temple Judaism).

See: Colossians 2:16-23, Hebrews 8:5, 10:1, Galatians 2:4-5, 15-16, 3:15-29

What are you for?

The Gospel of Yes by Mike Glenn is a fifteen chapter book discussing the “yes” of the gospel, Christians, Christ, and God. Most of the chapters have the word “yes” in the title. For example there is one chapter titled “The ‘yes’ of creation” and another one titled “Surprised by ‘yes’”.

The author states the purpose of his book on page 20 where he says “This book is about finding your ‘yes’ – and having the guts to live it.”

Mr. Glenn has done a great job of refocusing us on the positive verses seeing Christianity as a negative. For example on page 10 he says “Defining your life by what you oppose makes your life small, and it can fuel anger and bitterness”. I know that I can sometimes get trapped into seeing things in the light of “no” or what I am against but we as Christians are not to be defined by what we are against but who we are for.  

The author understands that we will have to say “no” to some things but that isn’t the focus. He says “no” is a necessary word and he reminds us that a “yes” has a “no” side to it. When we say “yes” to something we are at the same time saying “no” to something else.

The one thing that will stay with me from this book is how I am to be defined by what I am for and not by what I am against. In some ways Mr. Glenn has imitated Jesus. Jesus says “do to others as you would have them do to you”. He speaks in a positive, active way. “Do” is an action word. If He had said “Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you” it could easily turn in to a passive “I won’t do anything”. Just refraining from doing bad things to someone doesn’t mean you are going to “do” anything for them and I think this is what Mr. Glenn is striving to communicate to us.

We are called to be for Christ which means we will be against certain things but we are defined by who we are for and not what we are against.

Like any book there are things that I don’t agree with like some of the scriptures used in the book seem a bit forced in order to fit his interpretation. There is also a constant, and I think purposeful use of the feminine pronoun throughout the book. It’s as if the author is afraid to use the masculine due to the current culture. I had the feeling that the author swung to the extreme in this area. It wasn’t even like he was going for gender neutral but seemed at times to go to a feminine only position. I could be wrong on this but this is what I felt as I read the book. But even with these and other failures in the book I do think there are good things you can get from reading it.

You can buy it here and here

Disclosure of Material: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Bible Software and Me (Part 2)

Video 2 deals with simply reading the biblical text over in more than one translation and using a compare bible tool.

Enjoy

Bible Software and Me (Part 1)

I wanted to create a few videos showing how I use Bible software to help me grow in my relationship with Christ and how I use it to help me study for preaching a sermon or teaching a class. I plan on doing a few of these videos and I hope you find something useful in them.

God bless

James



Please read this book.

The book “When Work and Family Collide: Keeping Your Job from Cheating Your Family” by Andy Stanley was a great read.

If you have ever felt the strain of trying to balance work and family you will enjoy reading this book not because it gives you a quick fix solution but because it speaks plainly and powerfully about priorities. The author does a great job of intertwining practical advice, scripture, and personal experience together in this book to help all those who have a hard time “cheating on work”. The author not only gives good advice from real life experience, his and others whom he has counseled, but also give a practical way in which to implement those things he discusses.

The author at one point in the book uses the biblical story of Daniel wanting to honor God by not eating those things from the kings table (Daniel 1:8-16) and makes a modern application concerning how we might approach changing our work schedule.

I think this book would be very useful for anyone weather they work in the home or out of the home I also think it’s especially useful for those who are preachers or full time ministers. I know that I can at times get so consumed with ministry that my family is left behind and I know God isn’t happy with the neglect of my family. So to all the preachers out there do yourself a favor and read this book. In the very least it will get you to think and ask questions about how you spend your time and might cause you to consider rearranging your work schedule in order to spend more time with your family.

So in the end this was a great book easy to read and very though provoking. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

 You can buy it Here or Here

Disclosure of Material: I received this book for free from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers for this review, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Dinner with Christ?

Dinner with a perfect stranger by David Gregory

ISBN 1-57856-905-2

The book is a small 100 page hardcover made up of ten chapters. Each chapter is between 8 and 10 pages in length.

The book is a fictitious story about an over worked married man named Nick who has a young daughter. Nick spends way too much time at work and not enough time at home with his wife and daughter. Nick receives an invitation to dinner one day and thinks it’s some kind of joke because it’s dinner with Jesus of Nazareth.

I have a hard time with books that put words in the mouth of Christ that aren’t found in scripture because there is always a good possibility of making Jesus say something he never would say or endorse and that’s what we find in this book to some degree but that being said after the first chapter or two I did find the fictitious conversation interesting and enjoyed most of it.

The overall concept of the book was an interesting one, what would you say to Jesus if you had the opportunity to sit down and have a private dinner with him?

The book, in my opinion, is something like an apologetics book meant to give an answer to some of the questions concerning Christianity. Many of the questions that Nick asked are those that the average non-Christian would ask, things like is there a God, what about all the other religions and so on.

The fact that some of the theology is weak shouldn’t surprise anyone reading this kind of a book this isn’t a theology or an apologetics textbook after all so we shouldn’t treat as such. My philosophy is “eat and spit out the bones”. Let me give one example of what I consider bad theology, nothing crazy but weak in my opinion. On page 76 there is a discussion of the six days of creation and without directly stating it the author hints at that being the wrong way to view chapter 1 of Genesis. The implication is that God didn’t create in 6 literal days. There is also a bit of a jab at anyone who would wear a suit and necktie on page 86 (I do wear ties) although that has nothing to do with theology or salvation.

In the end I did like and very much enjoy reading this book. It touches on many of the regular questions and objections you find to Christianity and to Jesus. I think this is well worth reading (even though I mentioned a few things that I didn’t like about the book) and might even be worth reading together with someone who isn’t a Christian but is open to talk.

You can buy this book Here and Here

Please see the links below for more information.

http://www.davidgregorybooks.com/

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781578569052

http://www.scribd.com/doc/53092260/Dinner-with-a-Perfect-Stranger-by-David-Gregory-Chapter-1-Excerpt

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/author-spotlight.php?authorid=60719

Disclosure of Material: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”