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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A Year with Jesus : Daily Readings and Reflections On Jesus' Own Words By R.P. Nettelhorst


A Year with Jesus : Daily Readings and Reflections On Jesus' Own Words By R.P. Nettelhorst

A Year With Jesus is a devotional book written completely from the words of Jesus.  The author begins with the premise that one of the best ways to learn about our Savior is to see what He said.  To this end, the scripture provides us with the words of Jesus to reflect on.  The author picks a few categories to base on and then thoughtfully uses a passage to start discussion.  Each day starts with a section of scripture and is followed by the author's thoughts.

I really like the setup of this book.  It is broken into days by ordinal (1,2,3,4,etc) rather than a calendar.  That's great to be able to start at any time in the year.  Secondly, the author let's Jesus do the teaching.  Each day's devotion is only one page long.  Pleasingly, scripture is the majority of the page.  This humility in the design comes across in the author's thoughts.  The premise is simple, what an awesome teacher we have in our Savior!

I'd give this book 5 out of 5.

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.”

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Tozer

"Another real problem created by the doctrine of the divine sovereignty has to do with the will of man. If God rules His universe by His sovereign decrees, how is it possible for man to exercise free choice? And if he can not exercise freedom of choice, how can he be held responsible for his conduct? Is he not a mere puppet whose actions are determined by a behind-the-scenes God who pulls the strings as it pleases Him?"
"The attempt to answer these questions [those three questions raised in the passage above] has divided the Christian church neatly into two camps which have borne the names of two distinguished theologians, Jacobus Arminius and John Calvin. Most Christians are content to get into one camp or the other and deny either sovereignty to God or free will to man. It appears possible, however, to reconcile these two positions without doing violence to either, although the effort that follows may prove deficient to partisans of one camp or the other."

God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, "What doest thou?" Man's will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so."

-A.W. Tozer

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Has God Spoken? by Hank Hanegraaff


Has God Spoken? by Hank Hanegraaff

Has God Spoken? is a book written by an apologist to show the truth of the Bible.  In particular, the author skillfully takes on the lies from popular author Bart Ehrman.  Ehrman continues to rejoice in robbing his students of their faith.  Mr. Hanegraaff chooses to build it up.  The author has done great research into the truth of the Bible and continually defends its authenticity and divine authorship.

I really wanted to like this book.  There are several great pieces of apologetics in it.  However, it struck me sometimes that the tone of the writing was somewhat pontificating.  Additionally, Mr. Hanegraaff uses a lot of mnemonics.  A lot.  Each section is a mnemonic.  Even within chapters he uses more mnemonics.  Sometimes it seemed the goal of the book was more for the author's amusement than to communicate truth to a reader.  That said, I have to give the book a mediocre rating.

I'd give this book 2 out of 5.

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.”