Top Ten Books of 2012. . . # 9 Michael Holley, War Room

 

Yesterday, I started listing the top ten books that I read in 2012.  Much of the reading that I did this year was motivated by a reading contest that I got into with my boys.  The book that comes in at Number 9 was a book that I just happened to run across in a Books-A-Million in Texarkana, Texas in August.  As with many books that I have read over the years that have been very good ones were those that I wasn’t necessarily looking for.  This book fell into that category.  It actually happened to be a book that was on one of the mark-down tables when you walk in the door.  I judged the book by its title and cover and decided to read it.      

Author:  Michael Holley.

Title:  War Room

Publisher:  HarperCollins, 2011.

The book primarily is about Bill Belicheck the coach of the New England Patriots.  The book is mostly about the path the Belicheck took as a coach before ending up in New England.  I have noticed over the years that when you read books about sports figures that they have an amazing amount of discipline involved.  They are almost fanatical about the preparation process before each weekly game.  They literally give themselves to their jobs in an effort to achieve success.  As I read this book, I was challenged by the fact that my own sense of discipline as a pastor pales in comparison to what these coaches have.  Even though this was a sports book, I found myself troubled and convicted by the thought that these men who coach these teams are much more disciplined, prepared, and immersed in their pursuit of a corruptible crown than I am for an incorruptible crown.  I do believe that this book stimulated some changes in my own personal disciplines to seek excellence in what I am doing in the local church.

Top Ten Books of 2012. . . # 10 Iain Murry, John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock

At the beginning of 2012, I was challenged by my two sons in a reading contest of sorts.  Nate (who likes to remind me to call him Swaggy Nate) and Justin decided they would read more books than I would in 2012.  In fact, Swaggy Nate decided that the all-out prize would be a big steak going to the winner with the losers having to ante up and foot the bill.  So now the year is finished and I have long stopped counting the books I read because it wasn’t even fair to continue keeping the score.  Some of the books I read were nothing more than books that fall into the “zone out” category and were nothing but mindless drivel.  However, other books fit into the category of helping me to climb a few rungs higher in my spiritual life. 

Coming in at the Number 10 spot is a book that provided some inspiration to me in the area of preaching and the importance of loving the Bible. 

Thoughts On Spiritual Warfare--Part 2

After starting this series on spiritual warfare yesterday, I want to continue with some more thoughts about it.  I will do my best to stop writing before you get tired of reading.  I do know that I have a tendency to over-do it sometimes and you as the reader should not be penalized for that.  I trust that you will get something worth-while out of this post today also.    

To reiterate, we are in a spiritual battle and our attendance in it is not by choice.  It will continue as long as we remain faithful to our calling and active in our walk for the Lord.  While the series may seem a bit random as they are written, I would say that these are some of my own observations on the matter of spiritual warfare that has been years in the making.  The seeming arbitrary nature of this series is due to the fact that I am using my Moleskin notebook where over the last two months I have jotted down random things about spiritual warfare as they came to me.  The challenge now becomes how to take the scribblings and turn them into something profitable. 

Thoughts On Spiritual Warfare--Part 1

I can remember more than twenty-five years ago reading both of Frank Peretti’s gripping books about spiritual warfare.  The first one was This Present Darkness (1986) and was followed by Piercing the Darkness (1988).  Both of the books are fictional but there were elements of each book that had core elements of truth about them.  As with all fads that come and go in the church world, there were some who went way overboard with their actions and started stalking demons and getting involved in all sorts of weird practices that they believed would bring spiritual authority to their lives.  On the other end of the spectrum were those who vociferously opposed any thing that remotely looked like spiritual warfare and they cautioned the church about the danger of seeing a “devil behind every bush.” 

In my youthful exuberance and inexperience, I got caught up with believing that Peretti’s books were the way to go and begin to follow some of his concepts about “prayer cover” and “binding and loosing.”  If you will remember during the late ‘80’s a lot of people fell under that sway of looking for the “warrior angels” that Peretti wrote about.  I begin to look for ten-foot tall angels too.  Their advice seemed to be helpful and wise especially if you were looking for the real power of God.  It seemed as to me that if you were real “spiritual” then you could see angels.  I longed to be in that number of spiritual folk.  If you were goofy and lukewarm there was not a chance that you would even see angel dust much less an angel.  It is funny looking back at some of it now about how much prayer and fasting I gave myself to trying to see an angel.    

The Best Books on Preaching--Part 10

Part 10—Preaching That Changes Lives, Michael Fabarez, Thomas Nelson, 2002.

Continuing with this series on the best books on preaching, we get to a book that goes into a bit of different direction than some of the others.  Michael Fabarez’s book, Preaching That Changes Lives, is a book that reaches for a couple of areas of preaching.  First, he believes that preaching can indeed change lives and then he goes into the reason that it does so.  This works around the paramount issue of application.  If there are not any areas of application that the preaching brings to the ears of the hearer, a call for change, for transformation and action, then we are just wasting our breath. 

Paul said that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, rebuke, and instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16).  Instruction in righteousness is the task that preaching uses to help the church to see how to walk in this world.  Preaching has to be more than just the transference of facts about God that comes from an academic track, it has to be a presentation of Truth that helps us to see above the murky, humanistic, and godless views that this world touts on an hourly basis. 

Fabarez spends the first two chapters writing about the power of preaching and believing that preaching can help change lives.  In chapter 3, he will greatly provoke you by seeking to determine if the preaching is changing the preacher’s life.  He starts with three very inflaming sentences:

The Best Books on Preaching--Part 9

Part 9—Expository Preaching—The Art of Preaching Through a Book of the Bible, Harold T. Bryson, Broadman and Holman, 1995

I would like to take another book about expository preaching and review it for your consideration.  This review will not be as long as the one on yesterday which was written by John MacArthur, Jr. et al.  However, I would say that Harold Bryson’s book, Expository Preaching—TheArt of Preaching Through a Book of the Bible, is almost as good.  I have greatly benefited from this book over the years.  It is another book that you can tell how much it has been used because of the dog-eared pages, highlighted areas, and scribbles in the margins. 

Admittedly there is some overlap that Bryson and MacArthur’s books have.  This is primarily in the areas of defining what expository preaching is and is not.  Bryson’s steps are a little more defined in telling a preacher how to go about preaching through a biblical book.  He gives the following seven disciplines that are necessary for a preacher to accomplish that task.

The Best Books on Preaching--Part 8

Part 8—Rediscovering Expository Preaching, John MacArthur, Jr., Richard Mayhue—Editor & Robert L. Thomas—Associate Editor, 1992, Word.  Republished as: Preaching:  How to Preach Biblically, Reprint of original in 2005.

Perhaps I should have written a review of this book on the first or second day when I began to undertake the month long project of the best books on preaching.  I have to say that this book is probably my favorite of all the books on preaching that I have in my own personal library.  In my opinion, this book, and one other book on expository preaching by Harold Bryson have helped me the most in this area.  I never pick this book up without bringing something useful for me personally. 

My exposure to John MacArthur, Jr. came when I was at Texas Bible College and his commentary on 1 Corinthians was the textbook for that class taught by A. B. Keating.  It was through his encouragement that I began to read after JMac.  He also encouraged me to listen to Grace To You on one of the Houston radio stations.  JMac was on in the 11:30 PM time slot which was the time that I would be coming home from work from M. D. Anderson where I worked in the SICU.  Honestly, JMac did not even remotely appeal to me at the time because I found his verse-by-verse approach to be very boring; which was probably reflective of my low-level hunger for Scripture at the time.  I also had some obvious doctrinal differences with JMac which still exist to this day.