A Sweet & Bitter Providence [Weekend Resource]

This is audio Bible study at its finest, and that needs to inform your listening approach. Here’s what I mean.

John Piper’s new book, A Sweet & Bitter Providence, is out in audio format at christianaudio.com. The book is more of a Bible study than just a drive-by reading. It is more polished than a sermon, more fervent than a commentary, with more Biblical depth than the typical Christian book.

Piper tackles issues like sex, race, and the sovereignty of God head-on. With gripping clarity, he opens the Book of Ruth chapter by chapter and proves that the three-thousand year old book is still relevant today.

So here is how I would approach this audiobook and turn it into an excellent Bible study on the Book of Ruth.

Read a chapter of Ruth each week. Meditate on it, pray over it during your time with God.

Then, set a time each week to listen to the audiobook. Approach it as a Bible study by digging into the text yourself, and then listening to John Piper add depth to your understanding.

You will enjoy the narrator of the audiobook. He puts enough expression into his voice to avoid sounding mechanical. I had a slight complaint at first blush as the narrator read all of the verse references. But that turns into an asset when you use the Bible study approach.

Get a Taste for the Book: A Quote

“One of the great diseases of our day is trifling. The things with which most people spend most of their time are trivial. And what makes this a disease is that we were meant to live for magnificent causes.

“None of us is really content with the trivial pursuits of the world. Our souls will not be satisfied with trifles. …So our souls shrivel. Our lives become trivial. And our capacity for magnificent causes and great worship dies.

“The book of Ruth wants to teach us that God’s purpose for his people is to connect us to something far greater than ourselves.”

Note: This review was done as part of the christianaudio Reviewers Program.

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Humility: True Greatness [Weekend Resource]

If I met someone presuming to have something to say about humility, automatically I’d think him unqualified to speak on the subject.

So are the feelings of CJ Mahaney as he wrote his book, Humility: True Greatness. But Mahaney’s work merits your attention, at least for one primary reason.

He is writing as a fellow pilgrim pursing humility by the grace of God. His goal? Help you make humility the everyday attire of your life instead of a mere performance. Mahaney approaches that goal in the only effective manner.

The Only Path to Humility

What is the only effective way to find humility? By recognizing that humans “cannot free ourselves from pride and selfish ambition; a divine rescue is absolutely necessary.” Yes, we must redefine greatness to mean serving others instead of being served. Yes, we must see the foolishness of pride. But in the end, all endeavors to find humility are futile if they do not lead you do the cross of Christ. Christ alone offers hope for humility by ransoming us from bondage to pride.

Finding the Authentic Servant’s Heart…At Last

I highly recommend this audiobook…it ranks in the top tier of books I’ve read. Evidence: I’ve read the print version several times as well as listened to the audio from christianaudio.com [that's a dual statement of the book's quality and my need]. The book itself is no salvation, but it clearly explains the gospel of Jesus Christ who alone offers real humility. The kind of authentic servant’s heart that you’ve never found anywhere else.

Note: This review was done as part of the christianaudio Reviewers Program.

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Revolution in World Missions – Free Book [Weekend Resource]

It is hard to turn down a free book. Especially a book of true stories and insightful teaching melded together.

Why I Recommended A Book Without Reading It

Small confession to make: I haven’t actually read the whole book. But when I went to gauge the quality of the book, I skipped straight to chapter 11 where the author lays out the importance of the gospel. Red flags should go up if a book on missions misses the gospel. This book didn’t. And throughout the book, it solidly exposes false gospels that we may be tempted to embrace.

All that said, don’t neglect to read with discernment.

How to Get Your Free Copy

Three ways get your copy of Revolution in World Missions for free.

First, go order your free copy and wait for it to come in the mail.

After that, you will get a link in your email that will allow you to download the audiobook and PDF version for free as well.

Book Summary

Yohannan lays out his own story and presents biblical insights on world missions.

From the website:

“In this exciting and fast moving narrative, K.P. Yohannan shares how God brought him from his remote Indian village to become the founder of Gospel for Asia, which supports thousands of native missionaries.”

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How to Ask Better Small Group Questions [Weekend Resource]

Can you identify with the following prayer?

Dear God, so far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped or lost my temper. I haven’t cheated anyone out of money or stared at a beautiful woman with lust. I haven’t been grumpy or selfish, and I’m really glad of that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m going to need all the help I can get. Amen.

Those are the opening lines of Now That’s a Good Question! by Terry Powell.

Who doesn’t want to read a book that starts off like that?

The purpose of this book is to aid the small group leader in leading a discussion.

• What makes good question?
• How do you ask effective, discussion-stimulating questions?
• What is the difference between an interpretation and an application question?

In less than 100 easy-read pages, the book answers those questions, and many others [see table of contents].

You can download [for free] Chapter 1: Creating a Climate for Discussion.

The chapter is about…well, creating an effective discussion climate (like you needed me to tell you that). One of my favorite chapters in the book.

If you like what you see in the free sample, go here to buy Now That’s a Good Question! by Terry Powell.

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Dug Down Deep: A Review [Weekend Resource]

**Guest post by Demian Farnworth at Fallen and Flawed.**

Right here. Right now. I’m coining a new word: “confessional reformed narrative.”

What do I mean by that? Simply this: a “confessional reformed narrative” is a book on reformed doctrine couched in stories–the author’s and others.

Think Unfashionable by Tullian T. Or Why We’re Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not a bad thing.

Just a trend I’ve noticed. A trend, I speculate, cropping up to answer Emergent writers emphasis on “narrative.”

“Sure,” these writers seem to be saying, “you can have your narrative. But not without something to stand on.”

It’s that “something to stand on” that makes them reformed.

Josh Harris’ newest book Dug Down Deep–Unearthing What I Believe and Why It Matters falls into this “confessional reformed narrative” category.

Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame is all grown up now. He’s entered the early stages of mid-life. And now he’s wondering what in the world he believed in the past–it certainly wasn’t sturdy or even safe.

Page through this highly-readable book and what you discover is that seemingly worn-out words like theology, doctrine and orthodoxy ARE important. Especially if he wants to walk on the “pathway of the mysterious, awe-filled experience of truly knowing the living Jesus Christ.”

In essence, Harris argues that theology matters. And he aims to teach you theology. He aims to give your faith something to stand on. But with a slant. His slant.

Like any good theologian, he starts with the character of God. Theology proper…

But you wouldn’t know that from the chapter title “Near but Not in My Pocket” or the chapter sub-title “God is utterly different from me. And that is utterly wonderful.”

Or take the chapter on Christology: “God with a Bellybutton.”

See that? This is his method. And it’s clever. Indeed, once you read the chapter you almost want to lynch him for being so clever.

The great part is he never lets up…from one doctrine to the next.

So what Dug Down Deep ends up being is a great introduction to theology. The structure of our belief. Which, as Harris points out, is significant:

“Many of us are not theologically informed. Truth about God doesn’t define us and shape us.”

What does shape us? Our culture. Is that what you want?

More tantalizingly, though, are the stories–the confessions and narratives threaded throughout his book.

Forgive me, but tales about drunk Amish teenagers, a remarkably-well drawn cartoon to explain our struggle with flesh AND the sneak-peek into Harris’ one-time live-in mentorship with pastor C. J. Maheny–to name just a few–are captivating.

To be serious though, the real gem is the last chapter “Humble Orthodoxy.” A chapter that points out that hostility or arrogance has no place in historical Christian faith because, in the end, there will only be one right person.

You can probably figure out who that person is.

Demian Farnworth is keynote blogger for Fallen and Flawed.

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Book review: Compelled by Love – by Ed Stetzer

Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living. Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation. Birmingham, Alabama: New Hope Publishing, 2008. 224 pp.

Does your church live in a bubble?
Do not read Compelled by Love if you are looking for “101 ways to love better,” or “7 reasons why you should try harder to love.”  You won’t find it. Ed Stetzer, with the help of Philip Nation, starts with the gospel of grace when declaring the truth about love and the church. Christ, not how-to sermons or elbow-grease, is the only solution to the church’s inability to love as we ought. Compelled by Christ’s love, we can step out of the bubble our churches live behind far too often. That’s missional living.

Consider these quotes from the opening chapter:
“The old nature must die so Christ can live in and through us. The change that occurs by Christ’s love is the only path to love as God loves. We cannot by our own strength be loving persons as Christians. We can only become those persons when Christ lives in us. God gives the gracious endowment of the sacrificial life of Christ to indwell us so we might live by faith and not by sight, emotion, or any other earthly power.”

“The way of Jesus is contrary to what we naturally desire. Our fleshly nature refuses to love those we find unworthy. It’s only Christ in us that changes us and makes us see people as God sees them and to live a new life of compassion for both the saved and the lost (see Matthew 22:35-40).”

Stetzer draws from his personal experience as a church planter to provide keen insight. The book is designed for small groups, and each chapter includes a thought-provoking list of discussion questions to spur deeper thinking on what it means to live a missional lifestyle of love towards those around us.

7 Reasons why your church should read Compelled by Love:
1. It is a Christ-centered resource for anyone who wants to grow in love.
2. It reminds us that the bubble the church lives in keeps us from being effectively reaching the lost, because “God is on a mission outside that bubble.”
3. It brings us back to the Father’s heart as the motivation for ministry. “We begin with the knowledge of God because the mission originates with His heart.”
4. It is Bible-saturated, easy to read, and far from dry.
5. It explains the difference between treaty and surrender in our relationship with God, a section worth praying earnestly through.
6. Chapter 7 very likely will rattle your concept of church in regards to relevancy to the culture. It certainly rattled mine.
7. The book provides direction and spurs discussion that will encourage you and your church to prayerfully seek specific ways to lovingly reach the culture around you.

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