Morning Readings Include....

Along with daily Bible readings and the reading of works on 1 Timothy for sermon preparations, I am enjoying reading bits and pieces of the stacks of books and shelves of books that surround my life.

Of late, I have been enjoying getting into the following books:

A life-changing book, according to many.

 I work for God and God's people in my Christian school and pastoral jobs.  So, it is easy for me to do Biblical things out of a sense of duty or job requirements.  That means that it is easy for me to lose sight of desiring God, enoying God, delighting in God.  I can delight in a sermon delivered, a worship service highly attended, a tense meeting conducted amiably.  The joy of knowing God is a much needed antidote to my all-too-recurring thoughts and attitudes.  John Piper's book is one I should have read long ago and will need to read repeatedly.  Thank God for John Piper who is reminding us of the fun of a Calvinistic view of God.

Worthy narrative history.

I have long owed the book The History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer a reading and a review.  Now, I am looking ahead to this year's Humanities course which is on the Medieval World.  The Medieval world is so vast and rich, so full of light (not the Dark Ages at all), so territorial and expansive, and so relevant.  I am reading this book both for my own knowledge and with the thought of adopting it as a classroom text. 



"Not a square inch of the universe where Jesus does not declare: 'Mine!'"

 There are hundreds, many thousands, of titles that deal with the topic of a Christian worldview.  The starting point for most modern thinking of developing, teaching, growing a Christian worldview comes from one man: Abraham Kuyper and his famous Stone Lectures, which became the basis for his book Lectures on Calvinism.  Kuyper has been a major force in theological thinking for Christians of many varieties.  This book, Wisdom and Wonder: Common Grace in Science and Art, has only recently been translated and published in English.  It echoes and develops the main ideas of Kuyper.  If the grocery lists of Abraham Kuyper were published in English, I would want a copy.