Books

Relational pride and humility

I’m finally reading through Gary and Betsy Ricucci’s marriage book, Love That Lasts. I’ve been meaning to read through it for a few years now. It’s full of biblical encouragement, personal examples, and practical insights.

Here’s a section I read to my wife just this morning. This excerpt alone, as they say, is “worth the price of the book”.

Pride loves to talk, reveling in every self-exalting form of self-expression

Pride is quite content with what it already knows.

Pride assumes I already understand everything I need to.

Pride assumes I don’t need help.

Pride sinfully judges others by assuming they will respond negatively or unhelpfully if I am open.

Pride uses conversation as broadcast time.

Pride doesn’t need a spouse, just an audience.

Pride denies what the gospel reveals about our seriously sinful condition (Proverbs 10:19; Gal 5:17)

Whenever Betsy poses a question or concern about my tone of voice, manner of speech, or choice of words, and my first response is to “explain” or “defend” rather than ask a lot of questions about what she heard, invariably I am confirming her concern and am guilty of pride.In contrast humility yearns to learn, because it recognizes its deficiencies (Prov 12:15).

Humility asks questions and loves dialogue.

Humility has never found someone it couldn’t learn something from.

Humility assumes there is always more to learn about anything.

Humility assumes I need others.

Humility would rather be open and vulnerable than closed and independent.

Humility uses conversation with a spouse to explore new worlds.

Humility puts energy and effort into listening.

Humility treats a spouse as a fellow traveler on the road of biblical wisdom.

Humility that leads to intimacy takes an interest in one’s spouse as a gift from God.

Humility believes what the gospel says about our desperate need for God and his grace – after we’re saved as well as before. -Gary and Betsy Ricucci, Love That Lasts, p.70-71

Filed Under: Books, Manhood/Womanhood, Spiritual Growth

How do I find "the one"?

It’s the most frequent practical question I hear in college/singles ministry. It has the ability to tie people in knots like no other.

I’ve said this before, but the most helpful resource I’m aware of on sorting through these conundrums is Kevin DeYoung’s Just Do Something. DeYoung walks through the maze and helps the reader discern what kinds of questions to ask and when you’re verging on the unhelpful extremes of spiritual subjectivism.

Here is a very short interview with Kevin DeYoung on the issue of finding the right spouse.

Filed Under: Books, Church Life, Relationships

Take heed what you read

“Be careful what books you read, for as water tastes of the soil it runs through, so does the soul taste of the authors that a man reads.” -John Trapp

Filed Under: Books, Spiritual Growth

Introducing Mark Dever

Last week I had the chance, over at the blog for Next, to introduce another main session speaker for the Next Conference (May, 2010): a personal favorite, Mark Dever.

Dever has what he calls a “canon of theologians”. He has a particular theologian assigned to each month of the year, such that, in a given year, in addition to his other reading, he will devote extra time to becoming more familiar with that theologian and his writings. Those 12 or so men have been so consistently edifying to his soul that he makes a point year after year to delve more deeply into their writings.

All that said, if I had a canon of living theologians/pastors, there is no question in my mind that I would take a month of every year to spend extra time benefiting from Mark’s eminently helpful books, sermons, articles, and interviews.

Filed Under: Books, Church Life, Messages, Spiritual Growth

My Favorite Books of 2009

This is a snippet of an email sent to members of the worship team at Lakeview Christian Center – a great bunch of friends and servants, and a fine group of musicians to boot. I try to encourage the team to be “readers of good books”. We want to be a worship team full of people who desire to learn more and more truth about the God we worship, so that we might lead others in God-centered, doctrinally-anchored songs that rise from grateful hearts. We certainly don’t want to worship in a way that we’re simply stringing together tired cliches that say lots about how we feel and precious little about the One we’ve gathered to worship.

So, this little list is from a recent exchange with the team. Since I’ve sent this, they’ve been chiming in one by one to let the other team members know what books have affected them the most this past year. Seeing the solid things they’ve been reading and hearing how it has affected them is a great encouragement to the whole team.

Hopefully, as we’ve talked about before, we are cultivating the art of good reading – first and foremost, God’s Word, but also – and we learn this value from God’s Word – faithful teachers and Christian leaders (whose fruitful labor lives on in books) …

Though not in any particular order, these would be the five best books I read in 2009.

Just Do Something (DeYoung, Kevin)

Pivoters [our ministry to 18-30s] always ask questions about life, marriage, calling, majors, decisions, so I read anything on this topic that I can get my hands on. DeYoung’s book is far and a way the best treatment I’ve come across on the topic of how to discern God’s will. It’s also a perfect book for someone who says “I don’t like to read” since 1) the book is pretty short 2) DeYoung’s writing is solid, engaging, and at several points humorous and 3) every Christian immediately recognizes how relevant this subject is for his/her life.

The Reason For God (Keller, Timothy)

Keller’s defense of Christian faith is beautifully written and cogently argued. He does an excellent job arguing for the biblical worldview and Christian faith as well as deconstructing some of the pillars of 21^st century skepticism. I love Keller’s writing.

Instructing Your Child’s Heart (Tripp, Paul D.)

The re-enacted conversations of how to discipline and correct children with the gospel are alone worth the price of the book.

Keeping Holiday (Meade, Starr)

Meade’s book is a kind of modern day Pilgrim’s Progress. The characters and story development effectively communicate truths like – our inability to fulfill God’s requirements, Christ’s provisions for us, the Christian standing always with “the wind in his face” (opposition to the world, flesh, devil), false promises of sin, the ways that God “speaks” and draws us to Himself, the power of grace, the traps of religion, and more. Short book. I read it to the boys. They begged for more every night. So did I.

The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Calvin, John)

I have tons of quotes from Calvin’s Institutes, but have never gone through the whole thing. It is widely regarded as one of the grandest works of Christian literature in all of church history. All of Calvin’s theology is bathed in Christ-centered devotion. He is no rationalist or dusty theologian. It was a riveting read that brought me to tears on many occasions. His letter to the King of France in 1536 (at the front) is Christian statesmanship par excellence. I trust Calvin’s magnum opus will be on my all time top 10 list when I’m 90, if I’m alive. Ref21 blog has a reading plan that will take you through it in a year. You’ll have to put on your thinking cap, but the journey is well worth the effort.

Filed Under: Books, Calvin's Institutes, Church Life, Spiritual Growth, Theology

Favorite authors: David Powlison

I’m letting myself slip little by little here because in the case of some of the writers I mention in this series, I’ve engaged their material more in sermons or articles rather than in their books. That would be the case here.

Powlison is a seasoned man – seasoned by years of ministry and some challenging personal trials. The main thing I hear him ‘say’ to me as I read and listen to his stuff, is “Matt, care for people. Listen to people. Ministry is not one size fits all. Seek to apply the gospel to the individual sitting next to you. Comfort and speak the truth in love, with patience.”

Two great places to hear him say that, in more and better words are in the following sermons:

I’ll get to Mark Dever in this series soon and talk more about this then, but the 9Marks Interviews have been an invaluable resource for me. I’ve listened to many of them, many times each. One of my all time favorites (I’d say top 3) is Dever’s interview with Powlison. The way Powlison shares his testimony is a beautiful tribute to the power of God’s grace. It’s also great stuff if you have particular interest in counseling.

Filed Under: Books, Church Life, Messages, Spiritual Growth

Favorite authors: R.C. Sproul

It is no exaggeration to say that God used this man to change my life. His book, Willing to Believe, devastated some of my most cherished theological beliefs and began to open new windows for seeing and being amazed by the grace of God. Over the next few years I read just about any Sproul book I could get my hands on – even his children’s books.

Willing to Believe
Faith Alone
Getting the Gospel Right
Lifeviews
The Holiness of God (probably my favorite Sproul book)
Knowing Scripture
After Darkness, Light
The King Without A Shadow
The Lightlings
The Priest With Dirty Clothes

For every birthday I’d get a new teaching series from Ligonier. When our oldest, Hunter (now 11), was a baby we’d joke that he’d grow up thinking of Dr. R.C. Sproul as “Uncle R.C.”, since he spent so much time in the car playing with his mobile and listening to Sproul talk about ‘God and ice cream cones’, univocal vs. analogical language, talks on the sacraments, practical godliness, apologetics, salvation, Trinity, world religions.

I’m grateful to God for Sproul’s strong love for Scripture. This quote – a recent response to a question about his retirement – is vintage Sproul:

“I’ll retire when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of my Bible.”

I hope that’s not soon. My boys hope to shake Uncle RC’s hand one day. Maybe T4G 2020?

Filed Under: Books, Spiritual Growth, Theology

Introducing Joshua Harris

I met Josh when we were kids. My dad pastored the church where his uncle served as the associate pastor. During summer times, Josh’s family would come in town and he and I would play together, jumping prickly bushes in the front of the church building. He also taught me how to do a front handspring and was my inspiration for a 12 week stint of gymnastics classes at the YMCA.

Little did I know back then that he would grow up to be such a godly leader and gifted communicator.

On the Next blog, I took a few moments to intro Joshua Harris.

Filed Under: Books, Messages, Spiritual Growth

Introducing D.A. Carson

It’s been fun to join the blog-team for the Next Conference 2010, which will be held in Baltimore, MD, in late May. The conference is outstanding, and I hope to bring a big group up there to benefit from it.

I’ve gotten to introduce a few of the speakers for the upcoming event. The first was D.A. Carson.

Filed Under: Books, Messages, Spiritual Growth

Have you read Harry Potter?

I haven’t. Theologian and writer, Andy Naselli, recently finished the entire book series. Some people, not surprisingly, were disappointed/shocked by this and told him so. I’m certainly not endorsing the books, much less the movies (again, I haven’t seen or read any of them), but what Naselli discovered when he personally addressed each one of his objectors is sad.

I have spoken confidently against authors I’ve never read before. I can even think of occasions when, after reading more from a particular author, I realized that I caricatured and misrepresented the work. Oh, the inner bigot is ugly.

Yes, the prophets and NT writers as well were capable of outrage. But, outrage is a dangerous thing. And when outrage is not informed by the facts and the context, it either is or can come across as nothing more than bigotry. Either way, we lose credibility.

Filed Under: Books, Church Life, Cultural Issues

Links