Book of the Month

I began to do the Book of the Month for our church for two reasons. First, I see a lot of bad books being read and recommended by Christians these days. One church I visited had a stand set up to display the Pastor’s book picks. Of the three that that were there one was a “Christianized Psychology” book on relationships, one by Dave Hunt who is so sensational and wild-eyed that it is difficult for a thinking Christian to take him seriously, and the third a devotional that was on how you can be a better you. This saddened me because it showed me what the congregation was getting taught and where the Pastor’s heart was at. Which brings me to my second reason, I want Sovereign Joy to know what is in my mind and heart as I think and grow as your Pastor. That is why I pick the books I do. We have had two so far, Lectures to my Students by Charles Spurgeon and When Grace Comes Home by Terry Johnson. My hope is that you would read these books and get to know God better and understand me as your Pastor better. Which brings me to this months pick.

As far as daily devotionals go I have found most of them to be rather shallow and unhelpful. The last thing I think a Christian needs in their time devoted to getting closer to God is to have a self-focused blurb that is “positive and encouraging”. Don’t get me wrong. I am all for what is truly positive and encouraging, but this is not found in the man centered fluff that adorns the shelves of many a Christian Bookstore and sadly many a Christian’s bookshelves. A truly positive and encouraging thought can be one about our utter inability in all things spiritual, our sin, the coming judgment, God’s holiness, the law, all of which put our attention right back upon God and not on ourselves. Most Christians blush and recoil from these topics though. So we need massively God centered literature to counter our massively self focused culture.

So this month my Book of the Month is a devotional. It is R.C. Sproul’s In the Presence of God. It is one of the few devotionals I have read all the way through. This one (like Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening) is written to get our minds onto that which matters most, God’s Glory in all things. The Latin phrase is to live Coram Deo, which is to say, before the face of God. God’s authority extends to everything from our family life to the work place to our times of leisure to even our thought and emotional life. We ought to live every moment with the awareness of His presence and rule. Sproul accomplishes this by going directly to the attributes of God. He takes the often difficult and abstract ideas about God and makes them not only clear but also applicable to our every day lives. This is a book I can gladly recommend and be quite confident that your spiritual life will be enriched as you get know God better.