Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Recommended Reading from 2017 -(Pt. 2) Dec. 20, 2017


This year has been a year of indescribable grief and hurt for our hearts as we lost our youngest son Devin in February.  December 20th would have been his 16th birthday.  Without a doubt, God’s Word has ministered the most to our hearts and brought comfort in ways beyond what we could have imagined.  God has used many authors and books to help us to try and come to terms with such a terrible, terrible loss.  One of the first books we read after our loss was a book passed on to us by a co-worker of my wife.  The book is called Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss.  It almost looks like a children’s book, but it really is not.  It is both simple and deep at the same time.  It gives some good perspective where it is so welcomed.  It is a book that can be read in about 30 minutes and it is time well spent.  For a much more involved and in-depth look at the subject of grief, we greatly benefited from Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller.  The first part of this book is theoretical in that it gives the history of how those from the past have historically viewed grief and dealt with grief.  It moves from there into the more practical and finally ends in the Scriptural in its 325 total pages.  It is a book that will take a person some time to work through but the benefits are significant.

          Another great book that helped me put grief and pain in perspective was Ray Stedman’s book Let God Be God: Life-Changing Truths from the Book of Job.  Job is a difficult book to wade through and most people do not do much more than merely read it from time to time.  Few messages are preached on it and few memorize passages from its pages.  Stedman does as good of job as any author I have ever read at the point of breaking down Job’s meaning into understandable, usable truths.  Like the sub-title indicates, it can be life-changing when we understand more about suffering and pain, Satan’s desires, and God’s ultimate sovereignty.  Understanding Job goes a very long way toward understanding life here on this earth.

          I have always been greatly encouraged and strengthened by reading of the martyrs down through history.  Men and women have been so strong in their faith they have given their lives for the truth of Christ.  This year in our family devotion time we read a new book, which is a fresh perspective on the martyrs by author Bryan Litfin called Early Christian Martyr Stories: An Evangelical Introduction with New Translations.  It was very encouraging to us as we considered again the enormous and unwavering faith of those who came before us.

          I believe the Lord’s Supper is of extreme importance in the life of the church.  Sadly, it has become just another Sunday for people to miss church.  But when you consider what it is and why it is important it is then not so easy to dismiss.  R. C. Sproul has a great little book that is concise in its explanation of this special celebration called What is the Lord’s Supper?  It will help deepen your understanding and appreciation for the sacrifice of our Lord.

          I have argued for many years that legalized abortion is the single most revealing facet of our godless culture.  Many things are bad, but the mass slaughter of our children and the embrace of this culture of death, is incomprehensible.  The Gospel & Abortion, from “The Gospel For Life Series” by Russell Moore and Andrew T. Walker, gives some great insight into the issue and how we as Christians can respond.  The book is concise and a great tool for all believers.  Pornography is another pervasive problem that is far worse than many realize.  It is hard to talk about and often is not talked about by believers.  Another in the Gospel for Life Series is The Gospel & Pornography.  It offers a concise challenge to all believers to consider pornography through the eyes a Scripture and see it as God sees it.         

          I had the privilege of preaching through the Old Testament book of Judges and finishing it earlier this year.  The book describes a wicked and Godless period in Israel’s history where everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  It is exactly that which drew me to preach through the book.  So much of it parallels the United States of America in the modern era.  The most helpful resources I used in my study were Judges: Such A Great Salvation by Dale Ralph Davis, Judges For You, by Timothy Keller both which are great for laymen.  For more depth study, and especially for pastors studying/preaching through Judges, do not miss Daniel Block’s exposition of the book in the New American Commentary Series (NAC).

          This past spring I was able to preach through the Old Testament Book of Ruth on Sunday evenings.  The 4 chapters in the book tell the story of God’s providence in, not only the lives of the individuals – Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz – but of God’s greater work in providing an earthly King, David and an eternal King, Jesus  I found Sinclair Ferguson’s book Faithful God: An Exposition of the Book of Ruth very helpful and insightful.  I also got much from John Piper’s book A Sweet & Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God based on the Book of Ruth.  Dean R. Ulrich’s book From Famine to Fullness: The Gospel According to Ruth was really good at helping me keep this Old Testament book in a New Testament perspective.  For pastors and those who want to study deeper, I was thoroughly blessed by Daniel I. Block’s commentary on Ruth in the New American Commentary (NAC) series.  It is deep and breaks down words and customs in an exhaustive manner.  Probably the best commentary available on Ruth though is Robert L. Hubbard Jr.’s exhaustive commentary (316 pp.) in the New International Commentary Old Testament (NICOT) series.  I found it to be the most helpful tool overall in my study of Ruth.

          For pastors, I would recommend The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach by Bryan Chapell.  The book includes insights for ministering, particularly in the time of death and funerals, to those left behind.  Life is full of tragedy, hurt, and pain and pastors are appointed to help give biblical perspective on what has taken place.  The circumstances covered by the book include such things as sudden deaths, suicide, abortion, murder, death of a child or baby, etc.  Each circumstance has a manuscript of an actual message that was preached upon the occasion discussed. 

 

In Christ,

 

Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor

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