Recently Read - September 2024
Many of you know how much I love to read. It’s my favorite hobby and sometimes my mind drifts to thoughts and dreams of reading for a living. How can I get paid to read books? Like get paid enough to provide for my family and send kids to college… One can dream.
Anywho, something I want to do more of is share some highlights of books I’ve recently read. I still plan on doing my annual favorite books list in November, but in the meantime, I’m trying out a monthly post where I share some books I recently read.
Without further ado, here’s my first edition of Recently Read - September 2024 Edition.
The Word Before Work: A Monday-Through-Friday Devotional To Help You Find Eternal Purpose In Your Daily Work, by Jordan Raynor. I loved this devotional by my friend Jordan Raynor. The book is unique in that it’s a Monday through Friday devotional, intended to encourage the reader to think rightly about their “8:00-5:00” job. The devotional is biblical, practical, challenging, and encouraging. Each day’s reading is short—a passage of Scripture from the Old or New Testament followed by a brief, thought-provoking devotional. The Word Before Work would be a great supplement to your daily Bible reading.
Unity: Striving Side by Side for the Gospel, by Conrad Mbewe (1 of 4 books in the Union series by Crossway). I love this 4-book series by Crossway (the other books are Humility, Courage, and Worthy). Each book is brief (~100 pages) and flows out of Philippians 1:27-2:3.
One of my favorite things about living in Waco is the unity I see between the large churches in town. We pray for each other, share ideas across ministries, and break bread/eat meals together. For this reason, I was so encouraged by Mbewe’s call for the body of Christ to be united, that like-minded churches would fight for unity and not trash each other or gossip about one another. I commend to you any book in this series from Crossway.
What Do I Say When…? A Parents’ Guide to Navigating Cultural Chaos for Children & Teens, by Andrew T. Walker & Christian Walker. Such a great resource from the Walkers. They state very clearly in the beginning that this is not a parenting book but a book for parents. They take 10 controversial, divisive topics such as abortion, politics, sexuality, gender, and technology and share a brief biblical synopsis on the topic. From there they share biblical truths and discussion starters for parents with their kids. The genius contribution this book makes is that they provide three separate sets of truths and discussion starters for different seasons of parenting: preschool, elementary school, and middle/high schools. Clearly you would address sexuality in different ways for a 4-year old and an 18-year old. I look forward to discussing these chapters with my 17 and 15-year olds.
9 Lies That Will Destroy Your Marriage: And the Truths that Will Save It and Set It Free, by Robert Paul & Greg Smalley. Kristen and I read this book in advance of a marriage intensive we attended called Hope Restored through Focus on the Family. At some point soon I will share more about our marriage intensive experience, but in the meantime, I can wholeheartedly recommend this resource from Focus. The book exposes some lies or myths we often believe about marriage and fights those lies with truth through biblical teaching and practical exercises and conversation starters for a husband and wife. I’ve since read a few other resources from Robert Paul and Focus on the Family and they’ve been edifying both in my marriage and as I’ve challenged and encouraged other couples.
Parenting With Hope: Raising Teens for Christ in a Secular Age, by Melissa Kruger. Before our kids hit the teenage years, all I heard from other parents was how hard the teenage years can be. I don’t feel like I heard many hope-filled stories or encouragements from other parents and thus walked into the teen years with great fear and trepidation. Surprisingly, now as we near the last few years with kids in the home, I’ve been so blessed by these teenage years. For this reason I really resonated with Kruger’s book and the hope-filled message she shares for parents. Each chapter provides a Note of Gospel Hope and parenting principles to ponder that provide good summaries of each chapter. This would be a great book for parents to read together either as a married couple or in a small group/community/life group.
Deep Roots, Good Fruit: Seeing the Fruit of the Spirit through Story & Scripture, by Kristin Elizabeth Couch. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the Fruit of the Spirit for a potential future book project and I’m so glad I came across this new book. Couch is a gifted storyteller as she biblically unpacks each of the nine fruit. Chapter by chapter she shares how the fruit of the Spirit can grow in our lives by teaching through stories from her life and wisdom from God’s Word. From the beginning of the book she establishes the fact that you cannot grow fruit apart from abiding in Christ and deep roots in your relationship with Jesus.
Your Turn:
What have you recently read that you would recommend to others?