Pastor Paul’s Reading Recommendations for July 2018

Pastor announced three more new book recommendations for July. Stop by the library and check one of them out, or one of his previous recommendations if you missed them.

The first is “Is God Anti-Gay? by Sam Allberry. According to amazon.com,

“it’s the hot topic of the moment. Christians, the church and the Bible seem to be out of step with modern attitudes towards homosexuality. And there is growing hostility towards those who hold a different view. So is God homophobic? And what do we say, and how do we relate to to both Christians and non Christians who experience same-sex attraction.

“In this short, simple book, Sam Allberry wants to help confused Christians understand what God has said about these questions in the scriptures, and offers a positive and liberating way forward through the debate.”

 

 

The next, by J D Greear, newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is “Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart.” Here is amazon.com’s brief description of the book.

“If there were a Guinness Book of World Records entry for ‘amount of times having prayed the sinner’s prayer,’ I’m pretty sure I’d be a top contender,” says pastor and author J. D. Greear. He struggled for many years to gain an assurance of salvation and eventually learned he was not alone. “Lack of assurance” is epidemic among evangelical Christians.

In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. shows that faulty ways of presenting the gospel are a leading source of the confusion. Our presentations may not be heretical, but they are sometimes misleading. The idea of “asking Jesus into your heart” or “giving your life to Jesus” often gives false assurance to those who are not saved—and keeps those who genuinely are saved from fully embracing that reality.

Greear unpacks the doctrine of assurance, showing that salvation is a posture we take to the promise of God in Christ, a posture that begins at a certain point and is maintained for the rest of our lives. He also answers the tough questions about assurance: What exactly is faith? What is repentance? Why are there so many warnings that seem to imply we can lose our salvation?

Such issues are handled with respect to the theological rigors they require, but Greear never loses his pastoral sensitivity or a communication technique that makes this message teachable to a wide audience from teens to adults.

The third and final recommendation for July is “Unlimited Grace” by Bryan Chappell.

How God’s Unlimited Grace Leads Us to Heartfelt Obedience

What if obeying God is not just dreary duty—going through the motions to avoid God’s wrath or earn his favor? What if following Christ is pure joy—living in loving response to a grace so profound that it changes all our motivations and affections? Far from encouraging sin, this biblical understanding of grace fuels and empowers the obedience that God commands.

Explaining why grace is important and giving us tools to discover it in all of Scripture, Unlimited Grace helps us to see how gospel joy transforms our hearts and makes us passionate for Christ’s purposes. Experienced pastor and author Bryan Chapell takes insights from a lifetime of relishing God’s grace and pours them into this highly accessible and engaging book, helping readers see how God’s grace shines through all of Scripture, for all of life.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.