Edifying Read

The mission : to find a book explaining Christian belief which makes the least bit of sense.First attempt : Mere Christianity by C S Lewis. I think we know how that one went.Second attempt : Basic Christianity by John Stott***The foreword of this tells me there are few landmark books that everyone in the world should read – "this is one of the few". This is the 50 year anniversary edition of the book originally published in 1958 and "in the 21st century you cannot afford to ignore this book!" Okay, I'm not ignoring. I'm told this will explain the basic worldview of one third of humanity.Chapter one is called The Right Approach but it has the wrong approach. Immediately the non-believer runs into fundamental problems with the vocabulary. The whole idea of God is assumed – God as eternal, God as good and for Christians, God as personal. The entire assertion "God sent his only-begotten son" needs to be explained piece by piece – God needs to be explained letter by letter – me and the Christians need to start way way way further back to have any chance of understanding each other – you can't assume I know what you mean when you say these words. But this book does. For instance :The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to men and women to turn to him, while they are still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds them.That's on page 2. Not good! The thing about this stuff is that without careful explanation I have no idea what in the above quote is supposted to be literal and what is metaphorical. Rising from a throne and stooping – that's surely metaphorical. But "initiative" – that's supposed to be literal. Yes? I think so, but I get no assistance from John Stott. So this is for me terminally confused language.Here's a bold assertion. John Stott says :Our chief claim to nobility as human beings is that we were made in the image of God and are therefore capable of knowing him.And I say : Sez you! I think our chief claim to nobility is that we are still able to create love and art and music in the middle of this charnelhouse planet and in the face of our knowledge of the tiny spoonful of life we are able to live here, and that even in the middle of death, we live furiously and horribly and sadly and brilliantly, howling with laughter through the river of tears, and weeping at weddings and cheap pop songs.Well something along those lines. You get my drift.But let's try another chapter – The Fact and Nature of Sin, chapter 5. Now we run into another issue. John Stott is saying that Christianity is a project by God. He created humanity and gave us the free will to sin and guess what, we sin all day long, day in, day out. (Well, you know, quelle surprise. What did you expect, God?) Okay, you and me might say well, come on, John, I'm really too old to be sinning much these days, and he says no, even you goodreads reviewers are vile sinful wretches, because there is positive sin where you DO something which is wrong, like murder or invade a sovereign country or swindle millions, and it's reasonable for you to say that you haven't done any of those things lately, but then there's negative sin, which is where you haven't done something you should have done, and that's where we GETCHA!! Unless you're Mother Theresa you're just another dreadful selfish hideous squiggly mass of filthy sin in God's eyes. Yes, sorry, even you. You broke all the commandments before you cracked your four minute boiled egg this morning, yes you did don't you try to deny it you little creep I saw you. Yes, there's a lot of this kind of thing in chapter five all right. John tut-tuts over us all :We'd find it quite easy to consider ourselves good at high-jumping if the bar were never raised more than a few inches!You see what he's saying ? Your standards of goodness are repulsively low. You might as well not have any. You worm. But hold on :God is interested in the thought behind the deed, and the motive behind the action.Actually, isn't that a bit hopeful? My motive for not ever washing my car is not laziness but environmentalism! All that wasted water! My motive for not joining the charity half-marathon in support of cancer research is also not laziness, it's to avoid being tempted into smugness and Pharisaic self-regard if I had done it! But actually John is more pitiless than me. He points out that We may have attended church – but have we ever really worshipped God? We may have said our prayers – but have we really prayed?Wow, this is Christianity as practised by the SS – come on now, Mr Bryant, your eyes were closed, you were in a church, but you weren't really praying – were you? Hmm? (Another twist of the thumb-screw, deacon).John Stott is on much firmer ground when he talks about the collective action of humanity, but he only mentions this in asides. In 1958 the world was reeling from two world wars within forty years of each other, ending with the atom bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If he was writing in 2008, he'd have been pointing out climate change and general environmental woes, not to mention the one billion people on the planet still suffering in abject poverty. So human waywardness and selfishness - sin, if you like - is real all right. So, okay, let's go with humanity's sin. God's project is to rescue us all from its consequences – great! That's gotta be good news! But he does it in a really wierd way. It's like a Playstation game with hidden levels. It's not the way I would have done it at all.Stott hammers home that the way God reconciles us with him & frees us (individually, conditionally) from sin is via the sacrifice of Jesus, the Crucifixion. Then he takes a paragraph to say that he can't explain why Christ was crucified. Not really. "Much remains a mystery." But he'll have a go.1) Christ died as an example. Stott says that Christ demonstrated total non-resistance, complete passivity in the face of authority. If non-Christians persecute you for your belief, do not resist. To bear unjust suffering patiently brings God's approval... Perhaps nothing is more completely opposed to our natural instincts than this command not to resist. Yet the cross urges us to accept injury, love our enemies and leave the outcome to God.Whoah. This is very radical stuff. Seriously? So it was unChristian to declare war against the Nazis? Let Hitler and every other Hitler do their genocide dance? Seriously? I really have a hard time deciding what is to be taken literally here.2) Christ died as our sin-bearer. Now we get mystical. But the idea to begin with is crude. Back in the Old Testament, you sinned and you made a sacrifice. I suppose slaughtering a few sheep & goats was giving up valuable animals as a symbolic gift to God, it's a common thing throughout many religions. The idea of the scapegoat started here. As soon as Jesus appears, John the Baptist identifies him as a human sacrifice : "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." So apparently, according to Stott who gets it all from St Paul, when Jesus was on the crossThe accumulated sins from the whole of human history were laid upon him… He made them his own. He took full reponsibility for them…. Our sins sent Christ to Hell. He tasted the agony of a soul alienated from God. Bearing our sins, he died our death. He endured instead of us the penalty of separation from God which our sins deserved.So he had freed us all from the alienation from God which our sins should have brought upon us. Reconciliation to God was available to all who would trust this Saviour for themselves and receive him as their own.Ah, there's the catch. The unique sacrifice comes with strings, it is the genuine article but only if you're a Christian. Stott does not comment on the fate of the other two-thirds of humanity. Stott then remarks : "This simple and wonderful account of sinbearing is strangely unpopular today." Perhaps because it's weird and incomprehensible. But he does not tell us what is the popular interpretation of the crucifixion. Which kind of leaves us dangling. Stott winds up with an account of what it means to be a Christian, which reminds me of the old Byrds country song :My buddies tell me that I should have waited They say I'm missing a whole world of fun But I still love them and I say with pride I like the Christian life I won't lose a friend by heeding God's call For what is a friend who'd want you to fall Others find pleasures in things I despise I like the Christian lifeWell, Basic Christianity is written without the paternalistic smugness of C S Lewis' Mere Christianity, but I really feel it might possibly have been a half-way decent account if a non-Christian had been along for the ride, interrogating John Stott a little more thoroughly than he interrogates himself. A little too mystical-twistical in the middle and far too Pol-pottish at the end.

Life Is Never Mainly about Love and Marriage. So Learn to Live and Date for More.Many of you grew up assuming that marriage would meet all of your needs and unlock God's purposes for you. But God has far more planned for you than your future marriage. Not Yet Married is not about waiting quietly in the corner of the world for God to bring you "the one," but about inspiring you to live and date for more now.If you follow Jesus, the search for a spouse is no longer a pursuit of the perfect person, but a pursuit of more of God. He will likely write a love story for you different than the one you would write for yourself, but that's because he loves you and knows how to write a better story. This book was written to help you find real hope, happiness, and purpose in your not-yet-married life.

When you have Tozer on the Attributes of God you have Tozer at his best. Perhaps you have read his “Knowledge of the Holy” and found it one of the most amazing books you have ever read as I have. This volume, along with the corresponding volume 1, cover the same territory but with a more conversational and devotional approach. It is profound and worth reading even if you have read “Knowledge of the Holy.”After an Introduction that talks about God’s Character in general, Tozer presents ten of the attributes in ten in-depth chapters. These attributes cover God’s self-existence, transcendence, eternalness, omnipotence, immutability, omniscience, wisdom, sovereignty, faithfulness, and love. There’s not a clunker in the bunch as I found meaning, warmth, and enlightenment in every chapter. You always get the feeling that you were reading a man who knew the Lord in the way you wanted to.This edition by Moody has over 100 pages of a study guide by David Fessenden that really help readers dig into this volume. Mr. Fessenden is clearly well versed in Tozer’s writings and often quotes his other volumes to illumine the text here.I highly recommend this volume. It is a true must-have volume!I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

“Follow your heart” is a creed embraced by billions. It’s a statement of faith in one of the great pop-cultural myths of our day — a gospel proclaimed in many of our stories, movies, and songs. Until you consider that your heart has sociopathic tendencies. Our hearts were never designed to be followed, but to be led. Our hearts were never meant to be gods in whom we believe, but to believe in God. This book contains 31 meditations for recalibrating your heart. It is a collection of helps for common heart problems. Because your biggest problems in life are heart problems. Jon Bloom will help you follow Jesus by resisting your heart’s errant predilections and directing it to do all God’s will.

"Without the Spirit in its midst, the church would be nothing more than a social club or a service organization. But when the Spirit is given His proper place, the body of Christ becomes a dynamic force of change in a sick and dying world." (Chuck Smith, Living Water: The Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Life, Page 59)The author begins by showing us where in the Godhead the Holy Spirit belongs and how He operates as the third person of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He then explains how Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to those who would believe on Him, that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom the world could not receive. This Spirit would lead and guide believers into all truth. Also, that the Spirit would empower believers to be Christ's witness in all the world. Next, the author takes you through the various gifts and ministries that the Holy Spirit distributes to the Body of Christ: The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the gifts of healings, the gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation in tongues...He then explains how all the gifts of the Spirit mean nothing if not used in love and how the Holy Spirit was sent to us to conform us into the image of Christ and to share the love of the Father, agape love, with the world.A balanced view of the Holy Spirit, but by no means exhaustive. Many of the gifts of the Spirit are not expounded upon and I sensed a little bit of doubt from the author of the Holy Spirit's power at work today and the potential of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

The Barna group recently did an extensive survey and found that the youth are leaving the church. What has previously happened is that they then come back when they get married and have children, however, that trend doesn’t seem to be happening. Nothing we didn’t previously know! But they identified several reasons why. One of which is that their experience of Christianity is shallow and another is that the churches seem overprotective.This book may well present something of a solution for these issues.Skye Jethani, editor of Leadership Journal, in this book makes an interesting observation: he sees all religions are based on the idea that the world is a dangerous place. Because it is a dangerous place, this leads to fear. We want to protect ourselves, so this means some sort of control. However, control leads to conflict and so more danger. This may explain why churches want to protect. All religion, Jethani claims is some sort of control based on fear.In different ways we try and control God. This leads to four postures. In the first half of the book Jethani explains these four postures. Each of the postures contain an element of truth but are parasitic on the truth of the Gospel. But many are passing them off as gospel, which may be why the experience of Christianity for many is shallow.The first posture is life under God. The best way to maintain control is to try and control the God who created the world. This posture looks to rituals and morality to do that. If we do the right things then God will cooperate. If we obey, God will bless.It’s the drop the virgin in the volcano approach to religion. We adhere to the rules and rituals, but God won’t cooperate. Christianity then doesn’t seem to work.The second posture is life over God. In this posture we don’t need to follow divine commands, rituals or morality, we don’t even need God we can get control through science, through laws and principles. The more extreme version of this posture is atheism – we can take God out of the picture. A god-version is deism, god is a clockmaker – he’s set the world up so now it runs according to laws.For Christians who adopt this posture the principles in the Bible, rather than science, can give us control and help us find success. What happens is that we then have a relationship not with the God of the Bible but with the Bible as god.Life from God is the third posture. This is perhaps the most popular today, it sees the issue as unmet desires and pleasures. It’s a consumerist gospel, a gospel that’s all about me. God is there to give us our needs and desires, to give us what we want.We’ve made God into a divine butler or a divine cosmic therapist.What happens to Christians who adopt this posture when God doesn’t meet our desires? They walk away form the shallow alternative to the gospel, mistakenly thinking that they have tried the real thing.The fourth posture reverses this approach – rather than life from God it’s life for God. It puts mission or transformation at the centre. God doesn’t exist for us; we exist to serve God. We need to figure out what God’s purpose is for us and do more for God. The more we do for God the better we feel about ourselves.Jethani points out have produced an activist generation – we want to end world poverty, we want to reach the lost, we want to go out on the streets to heal, we want to see people saved, we want to see culture transformed. But why are we doing it? We are driven not out of compassion but out of a search for significance.This is a brilliant analysis of false gospels often promulgated as the Gospel. It is no longer people’s experience of Christianity is so shallow – they have been inoculated against the truth.The second part of the book looks at the posture of the Gospel: life with God.In all the other postures we use God to achieve some end: it may be success, wealth or it may be significance. But once we get a revelation of who Jesus is – we no longer want to use God. He isn’t the means to an end – he is the end, He’s the beginning and the end, the all and in all.I found the first half of the book fascinating and insightful – the second less so, it’s hard to write about how we can get a revelation of God, it’s something that’s ‘caught rather than taught’. This is an important book. It may well change your view of God and the Gospel.

For every person who draws strength and direction from the Bible, there are many more who struggle with it. Some call it a long book with fine print and obscure meaning. Some call it a mystery, a chore to read, or an undecipherable puzzle.The good news is you can easily solve this problem. With over 300,000 sold, this revised and expanded edition of Living by the Book will remove the barriers that keep Scripture from transforming your life. In a simple, step-by-step fashion, the authors explain how to glean truth from Scripture. It is practical, readable, and applicable. By following its easy-to-apply principles, you'll soon find yourself drawing great nourishment from the Word—and enjoying the process! The Living by the Book Workbook is the perfect compliment to provide practical application of lessons.

Our churches and homes need men willing to follow the path of godliness no matter what the cost. This inspiring, popular book has been speaking to the hearts of men for the past 10 years, and its words are still relevant. Using engaging illustrations, scriptural wisdom, practical suggestions and study questions, Kent Hughes offers a frank biblical discussion on major areas of Christian manhood: family, godliness, leadership, ministry and more. This newly revised edition is for every man who wants to know what it means to be a Christian in today's world.

There are four great temptations that plague most young men: sloth, lust, love of pleasure, and peer pressure. J.C. Ryle--the last of the great Puritans--tackles each of these subjects with a tenderness and tact which is unsurpassed. If it was difficult to be a young man in the days of the nineteeth century when Ryle first penned Thoughts for Young Men, it is all the more difficult to be a young man in the twenty-first century world of image-overload, radical individualism, and rampant sensuality. Thoughts for Young Men remains to this day the most relevent and helpful book on the subject in print.

Wise Sheep Among the WolvesAll Christian disciples have one thing in common: as they carry the gospel across the ocean and across the street, persecution will become the norm for those who choose to follow Jesus. How believers respond in the face of persecution reveals everything about their level of faith and obedience.The Insanity of Obedience is a bold challenge to global discipleship. Nik Ripken exposes the danger of safe Christianity and calls readers to something greater. The Insanity of Obedience challenges Christians in the same, provocative way that Jesus did. This book dares you—and prepares you—to cross the street and the oceans with the Good News of Jesus Christ.Some of Jesus’ instructions sound uncomfortable and are potentially dangerous. We may be initially encouraged by His declaration, “I am sending you out.” But how are we to respond when He then tells us that He is sending us out “like sheep among wolves"?In light of the words of Jesus, how can modern day believers rest comfortably in the status quo? How can we embrace casual faith in light of the radical commands of Jesus which are anything but casual? Ripken brings decades of ministry experience in some of the most persecuted areas of the world to bear on our understanding of faith in Jesus. The Insanity of Obedience is a call to roll up your sleeves . . . and to follow and partner with Jesus in the toughest places on this planet."We have the high privilege of answering Jesus’ call to go," Ripken says. "But let us be clear about this: we go on His terms, not ours. If we go at all, we go as sheep among wolves." Jesus gives us Himself.  And He gives us the tools necessary for those who dare to journey with Him.

Nothing is more essential than knowing how to worship the God who created us. This book focuses readers on the essentials of God-honoring worship, combining biblical foundations with practical application in a way that works in the real world. The author, a pastor and noted songwriter, skillfully instructs pastors, musicians, and church leaders so that they can root their congregational worship in unchanging scriptural principles, not divisive cultural trends. Bob Kauflin covers a variety of topics such as the devastating effects of worshiping the wrong things, how to base our worship on God's self-revelation rather than our assumptions, the fuel of worship, the community of worship, and the ways that eternity's worship should affect our earthly worship.Appropriate for Christians from varied backgrounds and for various denominations, this book will bring a vital perspective to what readers think they understand about praising God.

There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and to say with some simple fast: "This much, O God, I want you."Our appetites dictate the direction of our lives--whether it be the cravings of our stomachs, the passionate desire for possessions or power, or the longings of our spirits for God. But for the Christian, the hunger for anything besides God can be an arch-enemy. While our hunger for God--and Him alone--is the only thing that will bring victory.Do you have that hunger for Him? As John Piper puts it: "If we don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great." If we are full of what the world offers, then perhaps a fast might express, or even increase, our soul's appetite for God.Between the dangers of self-denial and self-indulgence is this path of pleasant pain called fasting. It is the path John Piper invites you to travel in this book. For when God is the supreme hunger of your heart, He will be supreme in everything. And when you are most satisfied in Him, He will be most glorified in you.

Teach to LearnYou teach to make a difference. Now, revitalize your classroom by learning and mastering these seven time-tested principles being taught around the world! Written for teachers, including Sunday school teachers, parents, and professionals, this book outlines scriptural principles and techniques that will revolutionize your ability to teach to change lives. From the "law of the learner" to the "law of equipping," each chapter presents hands-on, practical tools for you to employ in your own classroom.Make a DifferenceStudents learn best when teachers teach best! So how can you do your part? Employ the seven laws of the learner and unleash your students' capabilities. You'll discover how to:Help students reach their full potentialEffect lasting life changeRekindle your flame for teachingCreate an excitement for learningTransform apathetic studentsWhether you're a professional teacher, a parent, or teach in any setting, these principles and techniques will empower you to make a lasting impact in people's lives. Thousands of teachers have already used these principles to spur their students to new horizons of success."For some time I have said to myself, 'Much of what I am doing in the classroom is a waste of time. I can't continue this career unless I can make a more significant contribution in the lives of my students.' The Seven Laws of the Learner was the answer to my need."Seminary professorPortland, Oregon"For years I filled my students with content. But since learning the seven laws, my life and teaching have not been the same. Now teaching for life change and revival are becoming second nature."Businessman, adult Sunday school teacherOrange, CaliforniaStory Behind the BookBruce Wilkinson had received thousands of requests for a book about how people learn. Having taught teachers all over the world, he developed the Seven Laws as the basis of his teaching workshops. In 1991 he sat down to put this content into book form. Published originally as a partnership between Multnomah Publishers and Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, this book is a companion to the workbook titled Almost Every Answer for Practically Every Teacher.

Are you ready for eternity? If so, are you helping others get ready for that journey into eternity that each of us must take? As believers, we all know that we should tell others about the Lord, but we often don't know how. This practical book gives great ideas for starting conversations with the lost, how to keep them going, examples of various witnessing situations, and solid answers to commonly asked questions. It will help motivate and equip you to reach both friends and strangers for Jesus Christ the rest of your life. Hear stories of real-life encounters that demonstrate how to put these principles into action. Learn how to open conversations and keep them going using very simple questions and ideas familiar to all of us. See how to navigate around common would-be obstacles to walk people right to the gospel. Then see how the lost are impacted to be thinking about their eternal destination and thankful to have their questions answered. You'll be filled with incredible thanks for having given them the help they need and for honoring God by giving them the truth about salvation.

We admire these men for their greatness, but the truth is Augustine grappled with sexual passions. Martin Luther struggled to control his tongue. John Calvin fought the battle of faith with worldly weapons.Yet each man will always be remembered for the messages he declared-messages that still resound today. John Piper explores each of these men's lives, integrating Augustine's delight in God with Luther's emphasis on the Word and Calvin's exposition of Scripture. Through their strengths and struggles we can learn how to live better today. When we consider their lives, we behold the glory and majesty of God and find power to overcome our weaknesses.If ever you are complacent about sin, if ever you lose the joy of Jesus Christ, if ever you are dulled by the world's influence, let the lives of these men help you recapture the wonder of God. Book 1 in The Swans Are Not Silent series.

When I was a kid I used to sleep over at my best friend's house, and since he and his family were practicing Christians, I ended up going to a lot of Sunday services with them. We'd sit and listen to the pastor and sing some songs, and often, we'd go back to his house and talk about what we'd heard.I remember going with him and his brother to Bible study a few times, where I was always shocked to find that I knew more about the Bible than the kids who were there, who could quote a hundred verses off the top of their heads, which was especially surprising to me, because I really didn't know much about the Bible.I remember one instance where they were talking about the devil being in their heads, butting doubts and thoughts in there, making them think things they didn't want to think. I interrupted and asked if they remembered last week, when the Pastor had pointed out that nowhere in the Bible does the devil tempt anyone, let alone control their thoughts, except in the story of Job, where Lucifer had to ask God's permission first, and God did the lion's share of the tormenting."Am I the only one who actually listens to the pastor?" I asked, confused--they didn't have an answer for me.It was around this point that my best friend's brother, who was also at the bible study, began to have problems with girls in school. Like most of us, he felt awkward about the new feelings he was having, and was more afraid of women than interested in them. He was a tall, blond, blue-eyed football player and girls liked to hang around him, even asking him out, which made him nervous and confused.He was a few years younger than us and we'd been there, we knew how he felt. His parents decided to try to help him, and at their pastor's suggestion, they bought him this book.After getting and reading it, his fear and anxiety around women seemed to increase, so me and my friend grabbed it from the coffee table, sat down in his room, and read it. We were still high school kids ourselves and hadn't had sex, but even then, we felt like this book was written by people who knew less about sex and human relationships than we did.It's a book full of guilt and paranoia: people can't control themselves, especially women, who can't help but try to seduce you, and it's your duty to avoid them, not to look about them or think about them in sexual ways, not to have those thoughts. The fact that these relationships are expressed in terms of combat shows the level of conflict the authors feel appropriate.But, of course, almost everyone has those thoughts. They are a natural component of how human beings work--attraction, infatuation, love, sex--these things are real, vital parts of life, secular or Christian. He tried to control his thoughts, to make them go away, but it isn't that easy.When a person spends hours at school surrounded by other teen boys and girls who have bodies and sexual thoughts, then goes home and reads books about sexual thoughts, it's no wonder that those thoughts will consume them. If someone wandered behind you whispering "don't think about sex" over and over again throughout the day, how would you be able to think about anything else?And perhaps the biggest problem about this book is that it encourages teens who are confused and uninformed to feel guilty, to feel like it's their job to control their thoughts and if they can't, they are failing not only themselves, but the people they are attracted to. Those sorts of negative obsessions can be very powerful, and it's easy for them to take hold, as they did for my friend's brother.Now, every time he had a thought about the opposite sex, he was suddenly full of guilt, suddenly telling himself over and over "don't think about sex", and getting even more upset when those thoughts didn't go away--which did not make it easier for him to learn to interact with women. The obsession he had with not thinking about sex just gave those thoughts more power and heightened his emotional response.My friend and I, on the other hand, even though we were going through the same problem, found that as time went on, things got easier. We learned how to communicate with people, the anxiety lessened as we learned that all the stuff we were confused about, all the stuff we didn't know about sex wasn't that big of a deal. We didn't give into those thoughts--we didn't have sex--but we learned to ignore them, to live with them, and we learned that they didn't have to define us or how we interacted with other people. Sure, it was a struggle sometimes, but we never let that struggle define who we are.The bottom line is, whether you have a positive obsession with sex or a negative obsession with sex, you're still obsessed, and that isn't healthy. Trying to banish your own thoughts is never going to work, because the when you say "I have to get rid of my sexual thoughts", that is you thinking about your sexual thoughts.It's a problem my friend's brother deals with to this day. He's a sweet guy, an intelligent guy, and he's not crazy, it's just that the anxiety of this has built up so much in his head for so long from books like this that he never had a chance to learn how to interact with people he's attracted to. He even enrolled in a group that helps people with sex addiction, despite the fact that he is still a virgin and in college, because these thoughts and this guilt still keeps him up at night, and prevent him from meeting or befriending women.It's fine if people want to be abstinent, or if they want to live as Christians and marry as virgins, but this book is not the path to making peace with yourself and your feelings, it's a book that fosters repression and anxiety. Reading through it, I was struck with how the authors talk about sexual thoughts--it became immediately clear that people who repress their sexuality think about sex far more often than I ever have, even as an atheistic teenage boy, I never thought about sex as much as the examples in this book.This book is not a representation of real life, or of normal human relationships. It is not a tool to help people come to terms with unwanted thoughts, nor will it help anyone to develop a healthy outlook on life and sexuality, Christian or otherwise. This book is full of nonsense and misinformation, and if you are a young man who already feels anxious about sex and women, this book will help to turn that anxiety into constant, life-long fear.

“Repent and believe in the gospel.” From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus called people to repentance. Peter and Paul urged people to repent as well. The concept of repentance is central to the Christian life. But what does it mean to repent? Here Dr. R.C. Sproul unfolds the biblical concept of repentance. He looks at repentance as it relates to regeneration. As a gifted communicator, R.C. Sproul has helped many believers grow in their understanding of such matters as the nature of God, the history of redemption, and the manner in which we are saved. Now Dr. Sproul’s lucid teaching on these vital matters is available in a series of concise booklets that are perfect for personal learning and refreshing, as well as small-group study. For a quick introduction to matters at the very core of the Christian life, for yourself or a friend, consider the Crucial Questions booklets from Reformation Trust Publishing.

Do you want to pray with power? Are you experiencing the abundant life? You can discover how effective prayers will transform you into a dynamic Christian with a deeper understanding of the Word. Personal and direct communication with God will revitalize and invigorate you. If you make prayer a key factor in your life, you will know the fullness of divine power. E. M. Bounds wrote this book for Christians who want to be mighty prayer warriors. Here's how you can have power through prayer!