Book Lists (entire post from Justin Taylor)

Sam Storms’s Top 10 Books of 2009

Sam Storms has given me permission to post his top 10 list for 2009:

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I’m following the lead of several others who are posting their Top 10 books of 2009. I’ll start with number 10 and work down the list. Happy reading!

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(10) Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional, by Jim Belcher (IVP).

I didn’t always agree with Belcher’s proposed “third” or “middle” way, but he is extremely helpful in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of both emerging and traditional churches.

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(9) 1969: The Year Everything Changed, by Rob Kirkpatrick (Skyhorse Publishing).

Be forewarned: this book contains some raunchy language and is assuredly not a spiritual treatise by any stretch of the imagination. But for those of us who graduated high school and started college in 1969, and who continue to think of that year with more than a little nostalgia, it provides a fascinating tour of the major cultural events that transpired in “the year everything changed.”

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(8) Right Time, Right Place: Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement, by Richard Brookhiser (Basic Books).

It is only fitting that in the year Buckley died (who, for many of us, has long been a towering political and social hero) a book should be written chronicling the development of the magazine he established. Far more than that, Brookhiser (still a Senior Editor at National Review), who worked closely with Buckley for several decades, provides a superb brief history of the conservative political movement in America over the last 60 years. A great read!

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(7) Understanding Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to America’s Theologian, edited by Gerald R. McDermott (Oxford University Press).

Gerry McDermott, of Roanoke College, may well be the most knowledgeable and articulate Edwardsean scholar alive today. He has done all of us who love Edwards a great service by gathering this volume of 17 essays on the greatest theologian the church has ever known. Do I sound prejudiced? No, I’m just convinced!

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(6) Jonathan Edwards and the Ministry of the Word: A Model of Faith and Thought, by Douglas A. Sweeney (IVP).

I was thrilled to see yet another book on Edwards released this year. Here is the endorsement I wrote for Doug’s book: “I love this book! Doug Sweeney not only demonstrates the central role of Scripture in the theology and pastoral ministry of Jonathan Edwards but also provides us with a vibrant portrayal of his life and the many brilliant insights that have rightly contributed to his global reputation. Combining clarity and ease of style with a remarkable breadth of research, Sweeney has given us a treatment of Edwards that may well prove to be the standard against which all future contributions are judged. I highly recommend it!”

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(5) The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, by John H. Walton (IVP).

This is surely the most controversial book I read this year and one of the most challenging as well. I say “challenging” not because it is overly technical but because it proposes a reading of Genesis that is both fresh and unsettling. If you’ve grown weary of the debate between young earth six-day creationists and old earth day-age advocates, I strongly encourage you to read Walton. You may not agree with him but you won’t be bored!

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(4) Finally Alive: What Happens When We Are Born Again, by John Piper (Christian Focus).

It would be a strange list, indeed, were there not at least one Piper book included! This is the most biblically grounded and theologically solid treatment of the new birth that you’ll ever read.

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(3) Calvin, by Bruce Gordon (Yale University Press).

In the year that we celebrated the 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth, Gordon’s treatment of Calvin’s life and ministry was far and away the best of the many biographies and other books released on the great Reformer.

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(2) Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion, by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck (Moody).

If you really want to know what I think of this book, purchase it and read the lengthy endorsement I wrote. If you haven’t read it yet, don’t let 2009 go by without digging in deeply. You won’t regret it (even if you don’t agree with all of it!).

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Drum roll please . . . . The number one book I read in 2009 is:

(1) Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem, by Jay W. Richards (HarperOne).

You may find it strange that the best book I read this year is on economics, and in particular a rigorous defense of capitalism. But in a season where our country is drifting all too swiftly in the direction of socialism, this is precisely the book everyone needs to read. You don’t need to be a scholar to understand it. Richards is clear and concise and convincing. Please don’t pass it up.

wait.ing

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.


memorable difficult time in life: looking for an internship junior year of college
memorable difficult time in life: looking for an internship first year of business school

but the point is, not to wait for the internship, but to wait for God.
to not point hope in the internship, but to put hope in God's word

and to look forward to being in the presence of God.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

to the only God,
our Savior,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,

be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.
Amen.


[psalm130.jude.]

help

Help me to be all prayer

and

never

to cease praying

He will swallow up death forever

He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

[Isaiah 25:8-9]

1. Teach me to wait
2. Help me to be glad and rejoice in your salvation
3. My only ultimate hope is all of God through Jesus Christ

Breath

Business school can be overwhelming when I begin to think of all the areas of my life that I have to juggle. But at the heart of it, I think what I'm really wrestling with is trust - trusting fully in God.

Theologically I know I can and ought to trust in a sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God. Yet my soul wrestles...because I struggle to view God as supreme and as my savior and my rest in every aspect of my life. Somewhere within me I've begun to trust that if I secure that top internship, I will be at peace, that I will be secure, that things are right in the world and that I will have validated myself somehow.

So in seeking that internship / position, I've taken matters into my own hands. I believe that I must do this or I must do that or I must meet him and must go there...or else I will watch my dream fade as a classmate of mine makes it his or her reality. And so my profession aspirations haven't inspired me, they've trapped me...just like they've trapped so many in business school.

Then I read:

"In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." - Job 12:10

This is a God who is powerful and in control beyond our wildest imaginations. If that verse is true, it must change the way I think about internships and jobs. It must change the way I approach recruiting, studying, networking and all the goodies of business school.

If that verse is true, then the goal of business school is not to network, it is not to get a great job, it is not education, it is not even social change...if that verse is true then the ultimate aim of my being in business school is the worship of God in all that I do.

It means that I worship God in that, when I begin to fear I can be fearless in God, when I begin to grow weak I can be strong in God, when I am overwhelmed I can do all things through Christ, when life becomes dark I stand in the light of Christ, when idols threaten to shackle me I am set free through Christ.

Books on the (my) Desk

by Author:

God
* ESV Thinline
* ESV Study Bible

Puritans
* The Valley of Vision

Timothy Keller
* Counterfeit Gods

Ross, Westerfield, Jaffe
* Corporate Finance

Salvation Army
* Annual Report