The author highlights the central themes of our union with Christ by pointing readers to key texts in Romans 5-6. He underscores the great benefit that believers enjoy, which goes beyond mere salvation. He points to the gospel realities that focus on sanctification, Christian growth, and battling sin with holy passion.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones' students will appreciate relevant quotes highlighting our union with Christ. Wetherell reminds Christians of the hope that we possess in Christ: “He has made us fruitful, pruning what is evil from our lives and producing what is good. He has guaranteed our future, promising to bring us through this life and into the glories of the life to come.”

I especially encourage new believers to carefully study the precious treasures that are explored in this book. My hope is that Saved to Sin No More will encourage Christ-centered passion to reach a crescendo in the lives of many. Soli Deo gloria!

Justin Whitmel Earley’s book, The Body Teaches the Soul: Ten Essential Habits to Form a Healthy and Holy Life is the most recent book in a growing body of literature. Here, as the title suggests, we are confronted not only with the challenge to pursue a healthy life; we are called to a life of holiness. The combination of these themes makes Earley’s book stand out above the rest.

Christians have a nasty habit of pitting the secular against the sacred, thus buying into a sort of “evangelical gnosticism,” a theme the author explores in some detail. The habits commended in this volume are:

1. Breathing
2. Thinking
3. Eating and Drinking
4. Sleeping
5. Sickness and Pain
6. Exercise
7. Sex
8. Technology
9. Worship
10. Death and Resurrection

Each chapter contains guides readers on a journey that challenges them to a life of health and holiness. For my money, the chapter on worship is especially noteworthy. The author alerts readers to the importance of worship, reminding them that “our bodies are fine-tuned to worship.” Central to this chapter is a critical observation, namely - “Everything that is biological is also theological.” Highlighting this theme should be revolutionary for many, as they have been accustomed to emphasizing the spiritual over the physical, thus taking the gnostic bait once again. Chapter ten also emphasizes physical discipline and spiritual discipline, the sum total that equals holistic worship.

One critique of this volume, despite its many praiseworthy elements, is the author’s encouragement for readers to engage in Lectio Divina, the Latin term for “spiritual reading.” This novel approach to interpreting Scripture is highly subjective and is leading the unsuspecting down paths that are not biblical. This ancient practice that many contemporary Christians are utilizing is a dangerous departure from biblical hermeneutics and should be avoided. Or as David Helms implies, it leads us away from the right meaning and right application of a text instead of toward it.” See Tim Challies’ excellent article, A Danger of Lectio Divina for a more comprehensive critique.

Overall, though, The Body Teaches the Soul is a solid offering that I encourage Christians to study and apply to their lives.

The Loveliest Place by Dustin Benge offers a perspective on the church that is encouraging, edifying, heartwarming, and most of all - biblical. The author writes:

This book has one aim: to set before you a thoroughly biblical portrait of the church that derives its life from the sweet fellowship of the Father, Son, and Spirit, creating a community of love, worship, fellowship, and mission, all animated by the gospel and empowered by the word of God.

Benge maintains that the church is beautiful because God is beautiful. He utilizes the exegetical thunder of John Gill who shows an allegorical portrayal that exists between Christ and the church. Benge observes:

The church is beautiful because the lens through which Christ regards her is his cross - the focal point of blood, righteousness, forgiveness, union, justification, regeneration, and grace. His cross makes her beautiful. His perfection makes her beautiful. It is his sacrificial, substitutionary, sinless blood that washes her garments as white as snow. The cross of Christ makes her beautiful not only inwardly by justification but also outwardly through sanctification. From giving second birth to final glory, the righteousness of Christ creates a beautiful church.

This stunning portrayal of the church sets the stage for the remainder of the book, where the author presents a series of descriptions including the church as our helper and beautifier, a pillar and buttress of truth, and feeding the flock, to name a few.

To say that The Loveliest Place is breathtaking would be an understatement. Dustin Benge has wonderfully captured the essence of the church in a short book that is eminently readable, accessible, and biblical in every respect.

Lincoln treats listeners to a musical cacophony that is sure to please many kinds of music lovers - especially fans of sweeping Stratocaster guitar licks that have made him a household name. The album begins on atriumphant note with Brewster's version of Joy to the World. The arrangement is fresh and pulsates with the vitality that Isaac Watts surely meant to convey.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing is a reverent rendition that moves with a majestic series of notes and a killer guitar solo. I can see Charles Wesley slouching down in his chair and smiling to himself, caught up in the truth the song intends to convey:

Christ by highest heav'n adored/Christ the everlasting Lord/Late in time behold Him come/Offspring of aVirgin's womb/Veiled in flesh the Godhead see/Hail the incarnate Deity/Pleased with man to dwell/Jesus, our Emmanuel/Hark! The Herald angel’s sing/Glory to the newborn King!

Miraculum is a 6-minute Christmas feast for the ears. The tune makes eager listeners wonder when Lincoln will release a solo instrumental album. This is Lincoln Brewster at his best - a blues influence, laced with arpeggios that has a Keaggy feel to it.

The rest of the album is musically rich, doctrinally sound, and points listeners to the birth of our Savior. This is Christmas music at its finest!

McCullough guides readers down the pathway to hope by first acknowledging the reality of death. He establishes this trajectory early in the book:

Before you long for a life that is imperishable, you must accept that you are perishing along with everyone you care about. You must recognize. that anything you might accomplish or acquire in this world is already fading away. Only then will you crave the unfading glory of what Jesus has accomplished and acquired for you. And you need to recognize you are going to lose everything you love in this world before you will hope in an inheritance kept in heaven for you.

One of the great strengths of Remember Death is facing the subject without equivocation. McCullough writes, “Death is an intrusion into the perfect world of the Creator designed by that same Creator to make a point. Death is a punishment for human pride. It exposes our foolish confidence in our freedom to be whoever we want to be.” But the reader is never left dangling. At every juncture, hope is offered and the vista of heaven is on the horizon.

Ultimately, death reveals what awaits each one of God’s elect, a heavenly home, where sin is extinguished forever. The author returns to this theme throughout the book by directing the reader’s attention to the Word of God, his promises, and the triumphant gospel of Jesus Christ.

Remember Death is a much-needed antidote to the pragmatism and man-centeredness that pervades the church. I commend it without reservation.

This short picture book for children is a tender tale of a girl named Pippa who encounters the beauty of God’s creation. The Scriptures announce, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). Getty’s book is a creative expression of this great reality. Parents will be delighted to help cultivate young minds with this helpful tool.

Crabtree’s little book is barely 100 pages but is filled with biblical wisdom, practical encouragement, and even contains some much-needed admonition. The book revolves around the author’s definition of gratitude:

Gratitude is the divinely given spiritual ability to see grace, and the corresponding desire to affirm it and its giver as good.

Crabtree builds an unshakeable edifice around this definition by demonstrating the need for gratitude, the wisdom of gratitude, and the end result of gratitude. A chapter that is especially helpful, Portrait of a Grateful Heart helps readers understand the need to be utterly transformed by Christ. In other words, what we truly need is not merely to be thankful; our hearts must be transformed by Christ. The author adds, “Our hearts pivot on the word of Christ. Either they swivel toward him in wonder and gratitude and affection, or they swivel away from him in stubborn, truth-suppressing pride or apathetic indifference.” In the end, gratitude toward God reveals that a person has a regenerate heart, one that has been transformed by the Holy Spirit.

The author reveals the dangers of ingratitude. Indeed, “the very dividing line between glory and dishonor is whether a person gives thanks or not.” He adds, “Thanklessness is at the root of homosexuality, covetousness, envy, murder, and a whole array of foolish and faithless derailments, as clearly stated in Romans 1:21-32.” The entitlement mindset, which has American young people in a death grip is laid bare in this chapter as the author compares the thankful person with the ingrate.

In recent years, a growing number of books and resources have focused on the subject of gratitude. Crabtree’s book is unique in that his encouragement is intimately connected to the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. A person may grow in his or her ability to express gratitude but such an exercise falls dreadfully short if it fails to acknowledge the supreme gift Giver, namely, the Creator of the cosmos. In other words, a person may express gratitude but prove to be an ingrate if God is not honored, acknowledged, and glorified.

Practicing Thankfulness, while challenging throughout, is a deeply warm and practical book. Sam Crabtree writes with the heart of a pastor and one who has not yet arrived. Readers will be enriched, educated, and moved to action. They will grow in their ability to practice gratitude, which will pay rich dividends to everyone in their circle of influence. Most of all, God will receive the glory and they acknowledge him for every good gift - even small packages.

David Mathis sets the record straight in his helpful and illuminating book, A Little Theology of Exercise. The book is as brief as it is bold. It offers a gracious rebuke to anyone who downplays exercise. But positively, it affirms and encourages Christians to commit to the discipline of exercise. The author writes, “One of the reasons I take exercise seriously, rather than neglecting it, is precisely because of how it seres the joy, strength, and stability of my soul.” He argues that “exercise makes happier humans, and God made humans to be happy - in him.”

Part 1: Move the Body

Mathis establishes the foundation in part one. His aim is to demonstrate that exercise is a distinctly Christian idea. There is an anti-body sentiment that Scripture opposes. 1 Timothy 4:4-5 says, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”

Our bodies were formed by God and belong to God. Therefore stewardship of the body is not only essential as a part of Christian discipleship; it plays a key part of what it means to glorify God.

Mathis holds that God is for the body. As such, he commends exercise. As important as maintaining a physically fit body is, spiritual health is our primary concern. This theme is missing in the vast majority of books that commend exercise. Also missing, is the hope of glorification in eternity future. “Our future,” writes the author, “will be forever embodied - beyond our best imagining.” For Christians, “the dishonor of death will give way to the glory of resurrection.” Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Part 2: Condition the Soul

The rationale for exercise is presented in part two. Our aim is to glorify God in our bodies. We also commit ourselves to exercise for optimal brain health. The benefits are numerous and the documentation is staggering for anyone with ears to hear.

An important rationale for exercise that Mathis presents involves seeking satisfaction in Christ. “God made our bodies to be healthier and happier as they move … Without bodily movement and exertion, our brains don’t get all the help they need to stay balanced and happy,” writes Mathis.

But the missing link the author provides involves the pursuit of joy in God. “Body stewardship stands or falls on whether it supports the pursuit of joy in God.” This emphasis, one that is missing is most books devoted to exercise, is what sets this resource apart. The focus is spiritual health and God-centered joy!

In the end, physical exercise will help meet the needs of others in love. In other words, when our bodies are in optimal shape, we have the stamina and strength to reach out to others and make a difference in the kingdom of God.

A Little Theology of Exercise should be devoured by Christians. David Matthis puts his finger on a subject that has been neglected for too long in the church. Perhaps one day, we’ll look back and thank him for establishing a new trajectory of health, happiness, and holiness - with the aim of glorifying God and finding our daily joy in him.

This short picture book for children is a tender tale of a girl named Pippa who encounters the beauty of God’s creation. The Scriptures announce, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). Getty’s book is a creative expression of this great reality. Parents will be delighted to help cultivate young minds with this helpful tool.

McCullough sets the parameters early in the book. He writes, “I want to show that the issue is not whether you love this world and its joys, its people and their needs. The question is whether you have any hopebeyond this world and what it has to offer. In other words, he reframes the trajectory for Christians and challenges them to orient their hearts and minds heavenward. He adds, “Heavenly-mindedness is absolutely vital because what we want or expect from our future has a huge effect on our experience in the meantime. We humans are future-oriented creatures whether we like it or not.”

The author argues his case for heaven with skill and biblical fidelity. Seven chapters drive readers deeper into the reality of heaven, each one touching on a theme that resounds with gospel hope. The wisdom of the Puritans saturates this work, which bolsters its credibility and invites a more thorough investigation of our heavenly home. 

John Bunyan offers this stunning insight as he describes the travelers in Pilgrim’s Progress at the end of their journey:

Thus, therefore, they walked on together; and as they walked, ever and anon these trumpeters, even with joyful sound, would, by mixing their music with looks and gestures, still signify to Christian and his brothers how welcome they were into their company, and with what gladness they came to meet them.

Remember Heaven is an invitation to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).