The Man Christ Jesus (Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ) by Bruce Ware

First of all I would like to thank Crossway Books for providing this book to me in exchange for a review.  I appreciate their reviewers program and have almost always been pleased with the products they publish.

Dr. Bruce Ware's book on the Man Christ Jesus is a wonderful new book that looks at the Divinity and the Humanity of Christ and how those combined to bring to mankind the needed Messiah, the perfect Sacrifice to pay for the penalty of our sins.

Most books when they look at this subject tend to dwell on the Divinity of Christ as that seems the most important fact to uphold and explain how Jesus was truly the Son of God and the second member of the trinity.  In doing that they dwell on Divinity and often don't write or defend the thesis very well as to the humanity of Jesus.

Dr. Ware wrote this book to explore and express the truth about the humanity of Christ Jesus.  The book gives what I believe is the best defense theologically for the humanity of Christ and the necessity of that humanity to fully satisfy the payment for the penalty of our sins.  Also the books gives great insight in to how important it is for us to understand that Christ Jesus was truly a man who lived in a human body and was tempted by all of the things that tempt mankind.  The difference between Jesus and us is that he lived his human life without sinning!  How is that possible?

Dr. Ware takes great care to develop the fact that Christ Jesus was able to live a perfect sinless life because he walk in union with the Holy Spirit and depended on the Holy Spirit to give him the strength and guidance to live such a life.

Would it be possible for us to also live a sinless life?  Well our sinful human nature makes that impossible, because in Adam we have all sinned.  But in theological terms yes we could if we were truly dependent on the Holy Spirit for complete guidance in all of our life situations.  The problem is that no one ever gives fully over the Holy Spirit every situation, because sin is satisfying to our decaying human sinful flesh.

Do we have the power of the Holy Spirit?  Yes.  Does the Holy Spirit live in us?  Yes, if we have surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ and accepted his substitutionary payment for our sin on the cross.

So, Dr. Ware asks this question, "Why don't we depend more on the Holy Spirit?"  That is a great question and each of us will have to answer that on our own.

There are many other details that Dr. Ware delves into regarding the Divinity and Humanity of Christ Jesus.  But I was so pleased with his approach of looking mainly at the humanity side and giving us such good teaching on why the Son of God had to be a man and also be God.

I would recommend this book for every pastor and layman.  You will enjoy it and it will become one of the favorite books in your library.

Thank you Dr. Ware for such a timely and masterfully written text.

Every Good Endeavor: by Timohy Keller

Tim Keller has given us another excellent resource. In my 40 years of ministry I have done lots of things, one of those was operate the Job Training Program for an inner city ministry. We had a ten week Theology of Work (written by Dr. Keith Phillips) course that we took our young people through and then helped them to find good employment opportunities.

Until now I have not found a book on the Theology of work that I felt did an adequate job with the subject. Keller's book handles it well, documents the Biblical principles and gives a good practical application for all that he is discussing.

Do you feel as though you have a "job" or a "calling"? That is one of the questions asked by Keller. Most of the time people think of a "calling" as being something a Pastor / missionary / professional Christian worker has from God. But Keller does a great job of reminding us that God put work in place as something for all of us, and it is a "GOOD" thing. Thus we are all "called" by God to do our work in a way that pleases Him and brings honor and glory to His name.

God gives each of us talent and intellect. He gives each of us a "calling" to the work that we do. As such we need to be asking other questions such as, how can I bring honor and glory to God through my daily work? How can I share God with others through my daily work? How will my attitude at work actually be a positive witness to others about my walk with God.

Keller's book is wonderful. It would be a great book for small groups to read together and then discuss. I would recommend that it would even be a great book for you to read, place on your desk at work and see if it will generate discussions with co-workers about your belief that God gave us work as a "good" think not as a punishment.

I believe everyone will benefit from this book.

Enjoy!

Church Planter, by Darrin Patrick

I think what I most enjoyed about Darrin Patrick's work is his description in part one of the book about "The Man" that is called to be a church planter / leader / pastor.  In seven chapters he goes through the character traits and qualifications of what a man needs to possess to be an effective church planter / leader.  His topics range from the "Rescued Man" to the "Shepherding Man."  He gives very good descriptions for you to dwell on as well as good practical advice for what it means to be a Shepherd / leader of your flock.

The second section of the book is "The Message" and deals with the importance of the Gospel.  The importance of having the correct message, well established and not watered down to be satisfying to all people.  The Gospel is a difficult message and sometimes harsh.  The Church Planter must be courageous in delivering the message to those that need to hear it.  They can not faint in the face of opposition.  There will be people who want them to soft peddle the Bible to make it more palatable for the hearers.  But the Church Planter needs to know the Truth, teach the Truth, and live out the Truth in their life.

Finally his last section deals with The Mission and gives very good advice and exposition of the task at hand and how when done well the task will transform the community, the culture and eventually the world.

All men thinking of going into Pastoral Ministry should read this book.  They should delve into it, make it a part of their life, add it to their collection of good books to have on their shelf and to refer to often.

I read this for an assignment with a group here at church.  By adding it to the books, Biblical Eldership and The Shepherd Leader I think it gives you just what you need to have a well rounded discussion of what it means to be "Called" into the Pastorate and what you will need to understand to be able to guide God's people through the turmoil of today's culture.

Enjoy!

The Shepherd Leader by Timothy Witmer

Timothy Witmer does a great job in this book describing his view of what a "Shepherd Leader" ought to be. There may be some that thinks he takes to long to get to the point, or that he is working to hard to "re-describe" the role of a Leader, but if you work your way through the entire text you will not be disappointed as it all comes together for a complete and well documented discussion of how Leaders need to be Leading their church.

I found the book the most helpful and interesting book on Shepherd Leadership that I have read in recent years. Witmer's thesis is that the church is experiencing a crisis of "Leadership." He will document what he believes the crisis is and then do a good job of working through what he believes is a "Biblical" answer to the crisis. His further premise is that "The Fundamental responsibility of church leaders is to Shepherd God's Flock."

So, what does it mean to Shepherd? That is a topic he handles well and uses many good resources from Keller's work on the 23rd Psalm to Tim Laniak's work on "They Smell Like Sheep." Those works gave us a good introduction to what it means to be a Shepherd and why sheep need a Shepherd. Witmer goes into that deeply and even further into why doing a poor job of shepherding is so damaging to the church today.

He will address the topics that Jesus taught when he accused the Rabbi's of being poor shepherds. Do those same conditions hold true for today's pastorate? The answer is, YES. Why is that true? Well Witmer will lack out the argument and give you the answer in a clearly written work.

Witmer divides the book into three Sections;
Section One: Biblical and Historical Foundations
Section Two: So What' a Shepherd to Do? (A comprehensive Matrix for Ministry)
Section Three: Putting it all together

He describes what he sees as the problem, addresses it with good foundational material and then gives you very practical advice on how to proceed with leading the flock that God has placed in your care.

You will find good discussion on what it means to be a "professional paid" staff member and what the role of the "laity" is.

I found the book helpful in coming to terms with how our Pastors (paid professionals) should work in partnership with our Elders (Lay people) to lead our congregation in a way that is Biblical and absolutely clear about the importance of proper care.

I would say the book is for all Christians, but especially to Pastor's and Elders and / or Leadership teams of the local church. It will give you a lot of good material to discuss and then put into action.

Enjoy!

Dreams and Visions, by Tom Doyle

There is a new / old phenomenon happening in the world today, that is "dreams and visions." That is the title of this wonderful book, but a reminder of something amazing that is happening. This isn't about just any dreams or visions, this is about "God Sightings," maybe more precisely "Jesus sightings." In this book Tom Doyle pulls together a collection of stories from a collection of Middle Eastern Countries that will encourage, inspire and educate you as to what God is doing in "Muslim dominated" countries.

As a Pastor and Missiologist I often teach classes about the need for people to become "missionaries" to "closed access" countries. These are countries where a traditional missionary can not gain access. They often times are Muslim countries that do not want Christianity to be introduced into their nation.

But even though human missionaries can not gain access that is not stopping God for doing His work. Doyle chronicles for us, true stories, how Jesus is appearing in dreams and visions to Muslims and sharing with them His peace, gentleness, security and love. He quietly enters into their religious world through an avenue that most "Western Christians" think is long out of use. He is entering through appearing bodily to people in dreams and visions.

When Christ appears he brings with Him a sense of love and peace that the people who experience it cannot deny. They can't run away from it and actually are drawn to it. They are drawn to it so much that they are seeking out people whom they know are Christians and asking for help.

What's amazing is that they are coming to Christ even though they know it could mean their death.

This is a must read for all Christians who are wondering how God will be made known among Muslims. This is a must read for Muslims who wonder if Jesus truly existed and was he just a prophet or as he stated, the Son of God. This is a must read for people worried about the Middle East and the war and violence that is going on there. You will be encouraged that there is an avenue of peace that can transpire and overcome the hatred and violence that is happening.

I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in what is going on in the Middle East.

The Stars Shine Brighy, by Sibella Giorello

Our main character Raleigh Harmon works for the FBI, the only problem is she thinks outside of the box and often does not follow protocol. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? For the FBI they feel that is a bad thing. Only bad things will happen when you bend the rules. You should always follow protocol. The problem is she gets results when she bends the rules. She never violates someones rights, she never blatantly breaks a law, she just goes about things a bit different.

Because of that she is under investigation by the internal affairs department of the FBI for how she works. During that investigation though she is asked to take an undercover assignment at a Horse Racing Track where it appears that there is organized crime rigging the races. Raleigh knows very little about horses, but she does know people.

Our author does a good job of weaving a story together that is not only realistic but downright frightening in a sense. I won't give you the part that is frightening because that would give away some of the plot of the story and be a spoiler, but let me just say that I enjoy how the author brings you along with the story and keeps bringing in new sub-plots that add and build the tension.

There are no major action/adventure/shoot outs that many of these books have, but that doesn't lessen the thrill of the read. Giorello develops her characters well and just when you want to dislike someone you actually end up liking them, or vice versa.

There are Christian undertones at places in the book. Raleigh has a deep faith and she thinks through what her values and stands ought to be based on her beliefs. She seeks God's help at times, but it is not overly done. So, I believe all readers will enjoy the book and not be offended by the mention of faith, it is part of the character of Raleigh and adds to what we know about her.

I enjoyed this read enough that I am going to backtrack and buy her other books. She held my interest, keep me reading and was just down right entertaining.

Enjoy!

Mistakes Leaders Make, by Dave Kraft

I first of all want to thank Angie Cheatham and Crossway Publishing for sending me a copy of this great little book, I appreciate their generosity and their trust in my giving an honest review.

Dave Kraft brings over forty years of ministry insight together with his work in eight different churches and para church organizations to give us a good little book on mistakes that leaders, especially pastors, often make in their ministries.  He tells the story of one fictitious church and it's multiple ministry staff.  Each staff member has a different mistake that they fall into and either overcome that mistake through prayer and Godly intervention or they fail and their ministry pays the price.

Some of the mistakes are allowing ministry and pride replace Jesus as the main point of our life.  It may look good to be so heavily involved in ministry, but at what cost?

Another mistake is comparing yourself and your ministry to others and always trying to improve so that you can be "just like" or "better than" the other ministry.  Instead Kraft points out our need to be humble and be content in our assignment from the Lord and to do our best to bring Honor and Glory to God instead of trying to "one up" some other ministry.

Other mistake is when we allow harmony amongst our body of believers and the staff to replace the real task of addressing conflict, addressing errors and at times making the hard decisions that might mean letting a staff person go or asking and Elder to step down.  Why do we so often try to sweep issues under the rug instead of dealing with them?  Usually everybody sees the "Elephant" on the table, so why not just address it.

This book is filled with practical ideas, practical solutions and down right honest writing that for some of us pastors may hit a little bit too close to home for our comfort.  I know that it left me asking myself about my motives, my work, my work ethic and most importantly my relationship with Jesus.

I would highly recommend this quick read for any Pastor or Elder, especially recommended for those in Seminary who are preparing to enter into ministry, this book may help you keep from stumbling out of the gate when your race starts.

Enjoy!