We have just passed the mid-point of the year and I know of many whose devotional plans for 2021 have either fallen apart or been set aside. Some of these people wish to restart and finish the year strong, but know they have no hope of picking up the pieces and completing their year-long devotional…
June was perhaps not the biggest month in all of church history when it comes to new book releases. Still, I did receive quite a few, then sorted through them to narrow down a list of the ones I consider most notable. Stuck in the Present: How History Frees and Forms Christians by David Moore.…
I am in the happy position of receiving endless numbers of Christian books. Every month or so I try to sort through them to identify the new titles that seem most noteworthy and, therefore, may be of most interest to readers like you. Here is the selection for May 2021, including the publishers’ descriptions. Gun…
I’ll be honest with you: April 2021 was probably not the most significant month for new and notable releases of Christian books. I did not have as many as usual show up in my mailbox and did not have to work as hard as usual to narrow down the list. However, we were still blessed…
I have mentioned a number of times that one key element of worship at Grace Fellowship Church is the Call to Worship. This call sometimes involves reading a passage of scripture, but other times combines several texts into a responsive or back-and-forth format. Here’s an example that might bless you this morning as you prepare…
This has been a busy few months for book releases, and nearly every day brings at least one new book to my mailbox. I continue to sort through them and separate out the ones that appear to be especially notable. This is my roundup of the new and notable Christian books for March 2021. For…
The time has come for another roundup of some of the new and notable books that have come my way in the past month. Unfortunately I dawdled just a little so this has fallen from the last days of February to the first days of March. Regardless, here are some of the books that caught…
With a new year comes lots of new books. And it’s not just new books but new commentaries as well. Lots of them have landed on my doorstep in the past few weeks and here are my picks for the new and notable books and commentaries from January 2021. In each case I’ve included the…
In general, there are two approaches to daily Bible-reading: reading for intimacy or reading for familiarity. Intimacy with the Bible comes through slow, meditative reading that focuses on small portions—deep study of key books, chapters, and verses. Familiarity with the Bible comes through faster reading of much larger portions—the entire sweep of the biblical narrative.…
Over the past couple of weeks the blogs and sites I read have been humming with list after list of the top books of 2020. It seems that just about every avid reader I follow is eager to share his or her picks for the year that was. I love these lists and especially love…
Do you love to read? Do you want to learn to love to read? Do you enjoy reading books that cross the whole spectrum of topics and genres? Then I’ve got something that may be right up your alley—the 2021 Christian Reading Challenge. Whether you are a light reader or completely obsessed, this 2021 Christian…
We have just about arrived at the end of another year—a year in which I did quite a lot of reading across a variety of subjects. Today I want to offer my picks for the top 10 books of 2020. I have put them in some semblance of order with my first pick at the…
As we come into the final stretch of 2020, Christian publishers continue to release some very good books. In this article I’ve compiled a selection of the ones that stood out to me as being especially noteworthy. Talking Back to Purity Culture: Rediscovering Faithful Christian Sexuality by Rachel Joy Welcher. I expect the coming years…
Though we are late enough in the year that we may be past prime book-release season, there are still some good titles coming our way. I sorted through the stacks that arrived at my door in October and settled on some that, for one reason or another, I consider especially noteworthy. To that end, here…
I have mentioned before that one important element of worship at Grace Fellowship Church is the Call to Worship. These sometimes involve reading a passage of scripture, but other times combine several texts into a responsive question and answer format. Here’s an example that might bless you this morning as you prepare to worship. It…
The good books continue to roll in! As September turns to October I thought it would be good to provide a roundup of some of the best books to cross my desk over the past month (acknowledging that, in reality, I’m posting this a day late). As usual, I need to add the disclaimer that…
Several years ago Jules Koblun and I began to create graphics together. I would find an inspirational quote and she would use her graphic design skills to set it atop an image. Over the years we’ve created nearly 1500 of these quote graphics, covering a wide range of topics. I expect you’ve seen them embedded…
As summer turns to fall, and as we seem to creep incrementally back towards normalcy, the new books continue to pour in. I’ve sorted through the many (many!) books that have shown up at my doorstep over the past four weeks and have narrowed them down to this list of a dozen. For each one…
Even in the heat of summer Christian publishers continue to bring us great new books! It has actually been quite a July for Christian readers with lots of notable books coming our way. Here are a few of the ones that stood out to me. Why Is My Teenager Feeling Like This?: A Guide for…
Summer is often a time when new book releases slow their pace as publishers await the busy fall season with all its conferences and other opportunities to make a splash. But this year we’ve been treated to quite a lot of noteworthy June releases. Here are a few of the books that have showed up…