Fatherhood

Are you a father? Or do you have a potential to be a father? (That’s just another way of saying, are you a man?) This is a great book on what fatherhood is, and what it’s for. Let me give you the opening paragraph of the chapter 2 (chapter 1 just explains what he will be doing in the book, that is to change your mind about fatherhood by showing you what fatherhood is and what it’s for. There, chapter 1 down.)

 “I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to maintain a serious conversation with someone while they are attacking your private parts with a knife, but that’s what I found myself doing one early summer morning in 1996.” 

  - p.19 in Fatherhoodby Tony Payne 

How can you not read on? Get it and read it. It’s a good mixture of humour, personal reflections, and biblical wisdom.

Top 5 from books I read in 2014

I managed to read 25 books in 2014. Some are probably not worth mentioning, even though they were useful for me. Here are five that I would recommend to others.

In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson
This book takes the top spot. It's written by a great theologian of our days, but it's accessible for any thoughtful Christian. Each chapter should be read as a unit, and as you do so, it will warm your heart by showing how great our Lord Jesus Christ is.

Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic

This little book is a gem. Written by a mother of 5(could be 6?), this book is full of Christian wisdom and honest words that will encourage any parents to remain faithful to God in all circumstances. For expecting mums and dads, this is highly recommended.

What’s Your Worldview?: An Interactive Approach to Life’s Big Questions by James N. Anderson

This book is fun and educational. Anderson has taken the task of analysing reader's worldview into a "choose your own adventure" form so you follow a trail littered with questions, flipping the book here and there. This novel approach makes the book fun to read, but also very useful in engaging reader and potential readers too. If you want to understand how different people think, this book is a good place to start.

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J. I. Packer

I read this book some years ago, but it was great to return to it once again. With his usual concise-yet-weighty style, Packer explains the relationship between evangelism and the sovereignty of God. Reading this will encourages you to go out there and evangelise totally confident of and depending on God's saving power!

From Glory to Golgotha: Controversial Issues in the Life of Christ by Donald MacLeod

This book is probably not for someone who isn't trained in theology. Or, at least you would want to have a trained guide whom you can ask questions about. I was fortunate enough to have my MTS trainer, Mark Earngey as my "guide". Having said that, the book isn't difficult to read. The deep theology it handles is why you need to be careful about reading this. I can't say I understood everything, and there are certainly a few questions raised and unanswered by it, but I enjoyed the book overall.

The Most Misused Verses in the Bible

Image Source: Booko

There are some common misunderstandings and misapplications of certain passages of the bible. Some are more harmful than others, but all deserve to be corrected. This book, The Most Misused Verses in the Bible, is helpful in checking your own understandings of certain bible passages, and to also learn how to better your interpretative methods. You may not agree with every interpretation of the author in this book, but you will appreciate his methods. If anything, this book will cause you to give more care and attention whenever you read the bible.

One caution from me, however.
This book is correcting common mistakes, and is full of great information. With it, you can be tempted to just use the newly acquired knowledge to pick out every mistake someone else is committing. You will want to and need to correct them in some way, but you must use wisdom and approach them with grace and humility, sometimes choosing another time to address such mistakes, so that they may not be discouraged and that you aren't simply showing off. Watch out for your own pride, and this book will prove to be greatly useful.

For another short review of this book, see this blog post by Trevin Wax over at the gospel coalition.

(Check Booko for places to buy this book.)

There is NO right NOT to be offended.

  Without doubt, many Christians manage to be offensive for reasons other than the offense of the gospel. This is to our shame and to the injury of our gospel witness. Nevertheless, there is no way for a faithful Christian to avoid offending those who are offended by Jesus Christ and His cross. The truth claims of Christianity, by their very particularity and exclusivity, are inherently offensive to those who would demand some other gospel.
  Christians must not only contend for the preservation and protection of free speech - essential for the cause of the gospel - we must also make certain that we do not fall into the trap of claiming offendedness for ourselves. We must not claim a right not to be offended, even as we must insist that there is no such right and that the social construction of such a right will mean the death of individual liberty, free speech, and the free exchange of ideas.
  Once we begin playing the game of offendedness, there is no end to the matter. There simply is no right not to be offended, and we should be offended by the very notion that such a right could exist.
 -- p. 35-36, Chapter 5: The Culture of Offendedness from Culture Shift by Albert Mohler (italics original)

Albert Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, offers a wonderful insight and guidance for Christians who must face the world which is opposed to Jesus and His teachings. This excerpt comes from just one of the twenty short chapters in the book, Culture Shift. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to think more clearly about how to live in this world. He also writes regularly on his own website: http://www.albertmohler.com/ It's worth a visit every now and then.

Reading List 2013

And here's my reading list for the year.

Theology

God of Promise by Michael Horton

Confessions by St. Augustine

The Jesus Way by Eugene Peterson

Cross of Christ by John Stott

Who Runs the Church? ed. by Paul Engel

A Clear and Present Word by Mark Thompson

History

The Reformation by Owen Chadwick

Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas

Other Christian Books

King's Cross by Tim Keller

Sermons of Jonathan Edwards

How Long, O Lord by Don Carson

Dethroning Jesus by Darrell Bock and Dan Wallace

Life At Best (part 3) by Eugene Peterson

Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson

When I Don't Desire God by John Piper

Grace Abound to Chief of Sinners (A Korean Translation) by John Bunyan

An Alarme to Unconverted Sinners (A Korean Translation) by Joseph Alleine

Culture

Why You Are Australian by Nikki Gemmell

Big Porn Inc by Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Bray

Novel

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Bring up the bodies by Hilary Mantel

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Game of Thrones by George Martin

Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons

This list may change over time, and I'm always open to suggestions.
What will you be reading?

Because He Loves Me

I felt it was more for a female Christian than guys. The title of the book is "Because He Loves Me," written by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick. The title, the book cover, the fact the author is a female, all contributed to my feelings that it was meant for lady Christians. But the message of the book is properly for any Christians, male or female, young or old, new or seasoned. It's because the book is about what the gospel is, and how it's meant to apply in our lives. It's about what God has done for us, and how we can live by faith in Him. It's for all Christians. You could be skeptical of this, if you have been a Christian for a while. There are only too many "how-to" books in Christian bookshops. But I dare say this book is different. This is not a "7 simple steps to become a better Christian" kind of a book. It brings focus back to what Jesus had done on the cross again and again, and reminds us to see ourselves through that lens, which will both liberate us from the guilt and the power of sin and motivate us to live a godly lives.

Here's a quote from the last chapter, The Hope of the Gospel.

On the days when you feel as though you'll never get it, you'll never please [God], you're such a failure, you must remember the lavish gift: [Jesus'] great heart pumped blood through his veins and then out his wounds so that he could bless you. This perfect blood streamed down his body and tumbled through space, pooling on the earth beneath his feet. It was trampled on by those who stood below jeering. It mingled with the dirt he had created, and from it grew your hope. And then, on the days when you believe you're finally getting it, finally pleasing him, when you think you can look in satisfaction at your goodness, you'll need to look at that blood even more closely. Take yourself to Calvary and stand there until all your good works seem to you as they really are: vile sludge purified only by his cleansing flow.
 - p. 190, from Because He Loves Me by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Also, the appendix of the book contains a personal testimony and evangelistic message from the Elyse M. Fitzpatrick, which I thought was excellent.

You can read more about it at Crossway, or if you are up to buying your copy already, you can get it from all these places.

Reflections after reading "Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor" by D. A. Carson.

An ordinary pastor. What does it mean to be an ordinary pastor? Carson's book certainly isn't intended to define what it means to be an ordinary pastor. Less was it to encourage pastors to be ordinary. The purpose and intention, as I understand, was to encourage pastors, but also any Christians, in their Christian walk. In that respect, he has produced a wonderful book. It sure has encouraged and challenged me to think about my life as a Christian, although I do not hold a title, pastor.

What was most striking for me from this book was, however, the title itself. Once I started learning about Tom Carson, the subject of the book and the father of the author, I could not help but feel that this pastor was no ordinary man. Sure, the size of the church he was ministering at never grew to a point where it could be called big or significant regionally, let alone internationally. He did not author a book. He did not start a seminary. He was not involved in a major theological controversy worth mentioning. In fact, even the book about him by his son concludes at mere 160 pages.
If these are what all counted in a Christian pastor, yes, perhaps the book was titled very aptly; at least his achievements were very ordinary, and I believe this is the reason the book was so titled. Yet, when I discovered the way he honoured others, even those who mistreated him so unjustly, or the way he put his sin of bitterness to death so promptly and persistently, or the way he rejoiced with those who were joyful with no reservations and envy, or the way he faithfully committed himself to God's sure word, the bible, day after day, week after week, year after year, the way he kept on loving his wife and his children through all the ups and downs of life, I found myself thinking that this is no ordinary pastor, but an exceedingly extraordinary one.

Then, I soon felt a slight blush. I was somewhat embarrassed for what I had just thought. To think that a godly character was an extraordinary thing in a Christian man revealed how low my moral standard had sunk. By no means I am trying to minimise the fact how great and wonderful Tom Carson was, the lasting impression I have from reading the book is my desire to be like this godly man. But to think that, simply because he was a godly man, although he did, of course, have some weaknesses, this pastor was no ordinary Christian, I believe I have a very slackened sense of Christian discipline and character.

That brought me back to agree with the title, "Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor." He was an ordinary Christian. Perhaps extraordinary by the world's standard in terms of Character, and insignificant by the world's measure of success. Nevertheless, he was a very much significant servant for God's mission and in His Kingdom, and very much ordinary in his character as far as God's moral vision for His people goes.

Now, what about me? I don't need such a godly man as Tom Carson to compare to reveal my short comings, an hour of drive together with me on busy Sydney roads will be more than enough. I might as well be called an "extraordinary" Christian in the opposite way in the Kingdom of God, if He was not so gracious to save such a sinner as myself. So I do not need to despair about my sins, yet, I can, nay, must set my goal ever higher; indeed Tom Carson is not my goal, but Jesus Christ Himself had set the ever clear and bright standard I must run towards. He had gone through the adversaries in life without stumbling, and now sits on the right hand of the Father and sent His Spirit to empower me in my walk as a child of God. How will He find me on the Judgment Day? Will He find me faithful?


(I highly recommend reading this book for any Christians wishing to be encouraged and invigorated in their desire for growth in godliness. You can purchase this book from Amazon, BookDepository, or Koorong.)

Five Leading Reformers

I've just finished reading "Five Leading Reformers" by Christopher Catherwood.
I was inspired to read more church history books after reading "Church History in Plain Language" some time ago, and this book seemed to be a good follow-up for me to read. As a Protestant, Reformation period is the most exciting era of church history for me, and I had this book for quite a while.
Now I have finished reading this not-so-thick book (less than 200 pages), I have less admiration for these reformers, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Cranmer, and Knox. Yes, less, not more. They were great men, convicted by great truths of the Gospel, whose works changed the world and their legacy is still felt and experienced in most parts of the world to this day. But the author did well in showing the very human side of these reformers, although I believe he portrayed them only fairly and as accurately as possible. This author also honestly explained the political nature of reformation very well.
Hence, these men, as great as they were, were men, naturally. And so my admiration grew smaller, and my appreciation and reverence towards the God who worked so powerfully through these men, and in fact, through the whole affairs of reformation, both in the trials and victories, has increased.
So, this book had a good effect on me, I'd say.

The author's conclusive paragraphs were a real challenge. It is long-ish to post in one go, so I will be posting up one at a time in coming days.

Here's the first paragraph.

As we have just seen, Protestants often criticise the Catholic 'Cult of Saints'. But how often do we unwittingly do something similar? Many Protestant traditions including Presbyterians of most hues, look back in awe and gratitude to Calvin. There are churches named Lutheran to this day. Other denominations are no different, whether it is the Wesley brothers, Smyth and Helys, Azusa Street or whatever your past hero's name or location might be. We all too easily tend to look at Scripture through the prism of their teaching rather than, as the Reformers did, looking directly to scripture itself, as the doctrine of sola scriptura surely teaches. It would be too ironic if, by quoting, say, Calvin or Luther slavishly, we treat them as being infallible! If we teach that the Pope is not infallible, then neither is any other church leader, however revered. (italics original)
- p. 187 Five Leading Reformers

You can get Five Leading Reformers from BookDepository, Koorong, or Amazon.

Book Review: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

I think one could brush this book off as a mere collection of weird stories.
The fact that they are grounded in real clinical cases may cause some others to ponder on the stories a little bit longer.
For others, these real life cases and the deeply thoughtful and sometimes even hopeful analysis of them would provide a rich source of extraordinary human lives, from which humanists may glean much that supports their ideals.

As a Christian, I saw much brokenness in all of the cases, even though some may protest against such labelling. I hope they don't misunderstand me. I think Dr. Sacks himself would understand me saying that all people in the book, Dr. Sacks included, are one way or another "broken" beings. When one acknowledges his brokenness, a Christian redemption can be explained in a way that is especially charged with hope. In this view, I think I can recommend this book to all.

You can buy this book from Borders or Amazon.

Book Review: Unpacking Forgiveness

Finished reading "Unpacking Forgiveness" by Chris Brauns. I'm not going to write a book review on this even though my title says Book Review. I cannot simply "review" this book for I am too deeply affected by it. As I read through the book, there were moments where my heart cried out to God for justice. No, more like vengeance. I argued with Him that it was too much not to seek revenge on at least some of the offences committed in this world. I argued that the only thing evil needs to thrive is the idleness and silence of the good. But deep down, I had to agree with what the author was saying, for he was merely reflecting what God had said in His word. (And by the way, the author was not saying that we should let the evil have its way, nor does the bible says so. But that's another blog post for another time.)

Eventually I realised how unforgiving I was, how much I was brooding inside with vengeance, and I still am. So I realised how much more I needed God's forgiveness and reforming of my mind and heart. And as I lift my eyes off my sinful self to the holy and righteous God, I am comforted and strengthened. I can hope in God whose words are sure and whose works are perfect. My cry for justice is silenced by the hope I have in God's vengeance. My petition for mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation is overwhelmed by the hope I have in God's sovereign grace. God is sufficient.


I am searching for a better phrase, but I can't, so I'm just going to use the cliché. This book is a must read.

You can get this book from Amazon, or Koorong.

Reading 2009: an update

It's the middle of March now.
Just reporting my progress so far...
From the 26 books on the list, I have finished reading 9 books, they are:

According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy
Knowing God by J. I. Packer
Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ by John Piper
The Doctrines of Grace by James Boice and Philip Ryken
True Blue? by Peter Goldsworthy
Everything you want to know about Jesus by Peter Downey and Ben Shaw
가난한 자는 복이 있나니
애통하는 자는 복이 있나니
내려놓음
It might sound like I read so many books, but most of these are thin or easy-to-read books. And of those harder books, like Knowing God, I had been reading it for a long time beforehand.

I read a few books that were not on my initial reading list, though. They are:
The Disease of the Health and Wealth Gospels by Gordon Fee
Humility by C. J. Mahaney
Prayer and the voice of God by Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne

I will sometimes write a book review about the book I read, sometimes not. Whether I write a review or not isn't an indication of how good the book was, it's rather how much impact it made to me.

Anyway, I think this list has been helpful. If you have books stacked up at home, and yet, haven't been able to read them, why don't you create a reading list as well? It will help your motivation.

Firefox and the Shelfari widget

A friend of mine just let me know that my blog made his Firefox crash when it was loading the Shelfari widget on the blog. When I checked it out myself, it did crash my Firefox too. It was fine till yesterday, so I think something must've changed. It showed fine on Safari. I took down the Shelfari widget for now, and hopefully it will be fixed and when I know it's fixed, the widget will be put back up here. Till then, you can simply visit my shelfari page to see what I am reading and what other books I read or plan to read.

PS. If you are here, thanks, Andy!

Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ

In my previous post, I reviewed the book, Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ. In it, I said:

I would even recommend this book to non-Christians since the book in fact has an evangelistic edge to it (it even includes a section at the end specifically aimed at a non-Christian).

However, I realised the one I read was a different edition to what is most commonly available nowadays. My copy looks more like the following:

It's published by IVP, and the newer edition is from Crossway. The newer edition does not have the evangelistic message section at the back, and its closing chapter was in fact the preface in the IVP edition. I may have to think twice about the evangelistic value of the newer edition, and may not use it as an evangelistic tool.

Tiny book review: Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ

I'm actually doing a small group study using a material with the same title, Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ. Reading this book was not a difficult task, but I do feel that I have rushed it a little. It might have been better if I read it slower, like reading Knowing God, but I wanted to push through reading the book even though I have not finished with the small group study yet. Perhaps that cost me. I don't think I benefited from this book as much as I hoped. Strangely, the words and sentences in this book came to me without the usual persuasive and convicting force like when I hear John Piper preaching. In the small group study material, a DVD comes with it, and when I hear Piper preaching and teaching in it, I was greatly helped and encouraged. But not this book.
Having said that, I would still recommend this book for new Christians since it handles various aspects and qualities of Jesus that makes Him glorious. I would also recommend it to seasoned Christians for it is good to be reminded of these things about our Lord. I would even recommend this book to non-Christians since the book in fact has an evangelistic edge to it (it even includes a section at the end specifically aimed at a non-Christian).

You can get this book from Koorong or Amazon.

(3 down, 21 to go.)

Reading plan 2009: 2 down 22 to go, oh, and I'm back from Canberra

I am back.
I might put up some photos later, but for now, I would simply say that my friends over in Canberra were very good and generous to me. If you are reading this, thank you again!

I also finished reading Knowing God on my way back to Sydney on a bus. Finally! It took me some ridiculous 2 (or even more) years.

Check out my review/recommendation (also posted up at Shelfari).

Reading plan 2009: 1 down 23 to go

Just wanted to mention that I've finished reading According to Plan. It was the first book on my reading list. Honestly, I didn't enjoy reading it as much as I thought I would, but it still is a very important book to read if you want to read the Bible well.

Quote from According to Plan

The following quote may not reflect the main theme of the book, but it is an important one for those of us who believe in the gospel of Jesus.

The main message of the Bible about Jesus Christ can easily become mixed with all sorts of things that are related to it. We see this in the way people define or preach the gospel. But it is important to keep the gospel itself clearly distinct from our response to it or from the result of it in our lives and in the world. If our proper response to the gospel message is faith, then we should not make faith part of the gospel itself. It would be absurd to call people to have faith in faith! While the new birth bears a close relationship to faith in Christ, it is a mistake to speak of the new birth as if it were itself the gospel. Faith in the new birth as such will not save us.
It is, therefore, important to understand both what the gospel is, so that we include what must be believed, and what the gospel is not, so that we don't require people to believe more than is necessary for salvation.
-- p. 81, According to Plan by Greame Goldsworthy

Now, if you are curious about what Graeme Goldsworthy, the author, will say about the gospel, and see whether he really got it right or not, I invite you to actually read this important book.

You can get it from Koorong or Amazon.

Reading 100 books in a year

Maybe my "ambitious" reading plan wasn't quite so ambitious at all. I wanted to read 24 books, but this man read 100 books in year 2008! Not only that, he also wrote reviews on 74 of them.
Quite an achievement if you asked me.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

My ambitious reading plan for year 2009

I've come up with a reading plan. I made groups of books (usually three) so that each group will have one heavy or long reading, one medium, and one light or short reading. That's all my estimation hence you may disagree on how they are categorised. I just needed a way to organise them according to my interest and ability. So, without any further introduction, here you are.

Group 1)
According to Plan
Knowing God
Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ
Group 2)
Religious Affections
The Doctrines of Grace
True Blue?
Group 3)
Desiring God
Everything you want to know about Jesus
가난한…/애통하는 자는 복이 있나니
Group 4)
Goldsworthy Trilogy: Gospel and Kingdom
Respectable Sins
The Supremacy of Christ in a Post-modern World
Group 5)
Church History in Plain Language
Life At Its Best: The Quest
Living The Cross Centered Life
Group 6)
Know the Truth
Encouragement
링컨/울어야 산다
Group 7)
The Reason for God
What's so amazing about grace?
Elders in Congregational Life
Group 8)
Sophie's World
When I don't desire God
내려놓음

I think it's a fairly well-thoughtout plan that I can come up with. I tried to make these groups as balanced as possible. I considered the authors and tried not to have one particular author bunched up in one group. I also tried to have at least one "pastoral" book that will minister to myself in each group. I included a couple of secular books. I made sure I included different topics in the reading plan, eg. Biblical Theology, Systematic Theology, biographies, philosophy, General Christian living, etc.
Yet, my feelings are somewhat mixed. On the one hand, I fear that these are too great number of books that I am forcing myself to read. When I read English books, I'm not so fast, and most of these books are in English. I wonder if I should reduce the number of books to read so I aim at a more reasonably achievable goal. But on the other hand, I see that even if I succeed in reading all these books, I still have so many books unread in my possession, and there are many others that I wish to read. I really have been overestimating my reading capacity for the past couple of years it seems.

I have been reading the first four books for a while already (and that's the only reason why 'Knowing God' by J.I. Packer is classed as a Medium reading. Otherwise, it's definitely a Heavy reading), so they shouldn't be too hard to finish off.

I have a few more books that I put into this kind of grouping system that aren't listed above. If I succeed in reading all of above, I will continue on with that, perhaps with some modifications it.

Watch me how I progress!

Too many books... I need a reading plan!

Okay, this is not looking good.
I just found out that I have in my possession 73 books that I haven't read yet. Some on my bookshelf, some in boxes (due lack of space on my bookshelf).

Seventy three books!

In the past couple of years, I've been hoarding books, but I think it's about time I stop buying more books, and do some serious reading. I mean, what good is having all those wonderful books if I never read them?

I need a reading plan!