The Beginning and End of Wisdom, by Douglas Sean O'Donnell

First of all I would like to thank Crossway Publishing for sending me a copy of this book to review and place on my blog.  God bless you Angie and my other friends at Crossway.

What a unique and wonderful collection of sermons regarding the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament.  Douglas O’Donnell gives us six sermons from the Wisdom literature.  He preaches the first and last chapters of three different books, Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes.

The seventh chapter is, “How Shall Wisdom Be Preached?” and is included to help the lay person and pastor evaluate how they will approach the study of wisdom literature and then communicate it to their listeners in an appropriate way.  This is the practical chapter and is well written and helps us see how Christ used the wisdom literature to convey New Testament truths to His listeners.

O’Donnell has two goals in the writing of this book.  “1) To help you know and enjoy the Wisdom Literature so that you might preach on it more often; and 2) to show you how to preach Christ from this genre.”  I believe that he accomplishes his goal.  The first six chapters handle his first goal and the seventh chapter and the Appendixes handle the second goal.

I believe that not only are his two goals met, but I think there are two benefits that the reader will get from this book.  Benefit #1 is that you will be encouraged and challenged by the sermons in the first six chapters.  Benefit #2 you will find tools that are helpful in your study and understand of the Wisdom Literature and how they relate to the New Testament.

This is a quick read, if you want it to be.  But it is a long read if you take the time to digest all that is said, all that is developed and then you seriously apply the principles that you will learn about teaching the Wisdom Literature.

Both laymen and Pastors will benefit from this short work and find that it is not overly academic, but instead, highly practical and encouraging.

Enjoy!

All is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir, by Brennan Manning

If you are at all familiar with Brennan Manning and his speaking and writing then you are going to be highly interested in this book on his life. For seventy seven years Manning has walked this earth and lived a life dedicated to the Lord. But he has also lived a life that has been bound by sin, overcome by grief and weighed down by character flaws. In other words, he is a sinner saved by Grace. 

If the Apostle Paul were here today I believe he would write a book very similar to Brennan's memoirs. The two of them would stand side by side and probably debate who was the greater sinner, Paul or Brennan. But if we are all honest we could join that debate. 

Brennan does not hold back any of the truth. He lets us see his life in all it's beauty and all it's ugliness. As a young boy troubled by his mothers reaction to his birth and childhood he carries those pains into his adult life. He has an absolutely amazing experience with our Lord at the age of twenty-two. He is overcome by the power of Christ's love and forgiveness. His life is changed and he strives to tell others about how Christ wants us to live our lives. 

But he also confesses to the fact that even though he was a sought after speaker he would leave the conferences and spend days holed up in a hotel room and drinking himself blind. He would then pull himself together and travel to the next venue and speak again. Now, this wasn't his whole life, he wasn't always bound by drink. But it came back again and again and again. 

Manning shares about his love for Christ, his love for the priesthood, his love of his wife, his love of his friends and most of all his love for God's words and actions that allow a sinner such as he to be assured of salvation and a place in Glory for eternity. 

I was amazed that when I sat down to read this book I couldn't stop. I had to keep reading. I had to hear the story of how a sinner handles his sin while serving his Lord. When I finished I realized that I had read the whole book in one sitting. That's how much it captured me. It helped that I was at home with a cold and didn't have anywhere else to go. But still the writing is excellent, the topic captivating and our Lord and Savior is amazing. 

Beware though, this book may be difficult to read if you have loved Manning's talks and writings and have idolized him in the past. This will definitely knock him off the pedestal but it will put Christ right up on it where He belongs. 

Enjoy!