Paul Barnett, here (pdf) and here (blog)

Sandy Grant, The Briefing, (Matthias Media), here.

Although Amazon is not always the cheapest store, you can easily browse there and purchase elsewhere. I have added links to Kindle versions where possible, as it enables you to download a free preview of the book to your pc, mac, phone etc using the  free Kindle reading app .

I have set up this store to help others, not to make money. If anyone purchases a book through the store I receive a small percentage, which I would use towards costs related to running this website. However, feel free to buy any books you might like from a cheaper site or local store. Australian and UK readers may find better prices at  www.bookdepository.co.uk .

I hope to add more to these book lists as I have time. I’d love to hear any books you’ve found especially helpful. For other book recommendations on a wide variety of Christian issues, see this list from The Gospel Coalition .

1. Advent calendar packs. The Good book co. has produced three different packs which each contain a calendar and an accompanying book of short Bible readings. Our family has enjoyed and been helped by these. Links to calendar packs in their online stores here: UK store ,  US store  ,  Australian store .

2. Jotham’s Journey / Tabitha’s Travels / Bartholomew’s Passage. Each of these books contain daily advent readings of a historical fiction adventure set in Palestine in the lead up to Jesus birth. Each reading also considers and applies a Bible passage. Our family have enjoyed using two of the books in this series over the last couple of Christmases, and look forward to trying the third. The stories are well told, and provide helpful background and sense of expectation and wonder at the birth of the Messiah.

3. Behold the Lamb of God: An Advent Narrative.

While many find the music inspiring, the words are a profound recognition of God’s reign. Hallelujah literally means ‘Praise Yah’ – a shortened form of God’s name ‘Yahweh’. It is an invitation for us to join in praising God/the LORD. The lyrics are below, followed by the Bible verses they are drawn from.

 

If Jesus really rose from the dead, it transforms both the way we think of the future and the way we live in the present. Among other things it means forgiveness, hope, meaning and power to change are possible. But can we be sure Jesus rose?

‘Nothing in history can be proven the way we can prove something in a laboratory. However, the resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact much more fully attested to than most other events of ancient history that we take for granted. Every effort to account for the birth of the church apart from Jesus’ resurrection flies in the face of what we know about first-century history and culture. If you don’t short-circuit the process with the philosophical bias against the possibility of miracle, the resurrection of Jesus has the most evidence for it … first-century people … found the resurrection as inconceivable as you do. The only way anyone embraced the resurrection back then was by letting the evidence challenge and change their worldview, their view of what was possible. They had just as much trouble with the claims of the resurrection as you, yet the evidence-both of the eyewitness accounts and the changed lives of the followers-was overwhelming.’ (Tim Keller, the Reason for God)

Below William Lane Craig presents some of the historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection:

The New Testament documents give us reliable, eyewitness, historical accounts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. As John writes: these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31).

Related Links:

Isn’t believing in the resurrection ridiculous? (Christianity Explored)

Behold our God (Jonathan Ryan/Meghan Baird/Stephen Altrogge)

1. Who has held the oceans in His hand?
Who has numbered every grain of sand?
Kings and nations tremble at His voice
All creation rises to rejoice

CHORUS
Behold our God seated on His throne
Come let us adore Him
Behold our King nothing can compare
Come let us adore Him!

2. Who has given counsel to the Lord?
Who can question any of His Words?
Who can teach the One who knows all things?
Who can fathom all His wondrous deeds?

3. Who has felt the nails upon His hands
Bearing all the guilt of sinful man?
God eternal humbled to the grave
Jesus, Savior risen now to reign!

TAG
Men: You will reign forever!
Women: Let Your glory fill the earth

© 2011 Sovereigns Grace Worship (ASCAP)/Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

You Have Been Raised (Mark Altrogge/Bob Kauflin/Ken Boer)

1. How do we know we’ve been forgiven?
How do we know that we’ve been made  clean?
How do we know we’ll go to heaven?
How do we know we’ve been redeemed?

CHORUS
You have been raised, the tomb has been opened
Nothing can take away our hope in You
You have been raised
You have been raised, the work is completed
Hell and its powers have been defeated
You have been raised

2. Now we are free from condemnation
There is no judgment left for us to fear
We don’t have to wonder if we’re welcome
You are the One who’s brought us near

BRIDGE
The price You paid for us
Has fully been accepted
Because of Your shed blood
We cannot be rejected

© 2011 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)/Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP).

Jesus_Lives (George Romanacce/Bob Kauflin)

1. I no longer fear the grave
Christ has come
Took the sting of death away
Through His saving blood
Though my body fails and my flesh grows weak
Till my final breath to this hope I’ll cling

CHORUS
Jesus lives and so shall I
I’ll be raised from the dust with Christ on high
Jesus lives no more to die
And when He returns with Him I’ll rise
Jesus lives

2. In this fallen world I cry
For the day when Your glory splits the sky
And You come to reign
All creation waits for that promised hour
When the saints of God are revealed in power

BRIDGE
Not death nor any power of hell can separate me from
The love of my Savior

© 2011 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP)/Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI).

 Alive (Steve & Vikki Cook)

1. My heart of stone was dead to You
Asleep within a world
That scorned its Maker
Until You breathed into my soul
And I woke up to You
My glorious Savior
You became my all
You became my all

CHORUS
Now I am alive, I am alive in You
You are alive, You are alive in Me
You called my name
And raised me from the dead
Now I am alive I am alive in You

VERSE 2
In You my life’s completely new
I’m blameless in Your eyes
Because of Calvary
The Father welcomes me with joy
Your Spirit makes me know
Your great love for me
Jesus, You’re my all
Jesus, You’re my all

BRIDGE
Bought with a price that cannot be measured
Chosen before all time
You are my joy, my prize, and my treasure
Jesus, You are my life

© 2011 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP).

The Grave by Susan Enan

All of your work won’t fit in the earth
When you’re lying underground in the grave
Whatever a man in your balance can
There’s nothing you can buy in the grave

In the next age no stock exchange
Is gonna pass on the money we made
No lottery wins, political spins,
When were lying  underground in the grave

New surgery defies gravity
But it all falls away in the grave
And who’s gonna care what color you wear
There’s no fashion show in the grave

So swallow it down
No easy way round
Just  a hill for the thrills that we crave
But no medicine to stop kingdom come
It’s your time get in line for the grave

And we’ll all be the same
And we’ll go as we came
Side by side as we lie in the grave
We’ll all be the same
We’ll go as we came
Side by side as we lie in the grave.

The reality of the death we all face puts so many other things in life in perspective. There is ony one real hope in the face of death: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;  and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NIV) 

I have a little boy who is blind and has autism, a growth hormone deficiency, he doesn’t eat well, he doesn’t sleep well. My wife lives with stage four cancer in her body, and I have a hope, I have a future, I have a rock, and I cling to my Jesus (John Knight, director of development, Desiring God).

Related video: John Piper interviews John Knight on disability

Related audio: Various talks on disability and the Bible from Desiring God

Related books: Two books related to disability 

Various resources Trusting God in Suffering

We generally dislike ‘pride’ shown by people like the over the top ‘brain surgeon’ in the humorous clip above. Most of us think of pride as a problem others have. Yet, in Mere Christianity, CS Lewis writes: ‘There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people…ever imagine that they are guilty themselves…The vice I am talking about is Pride or Self-Conceit…Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind… As long as you are proud you can’t know God at all. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. Is CS Lewis overstating the problem? Is pride really our greatest struggle? I’d like to briefly consider four questions based on Daniel 4:

1. What is pride?

Daniel 4 gives an account from the life of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon from c. 605 – 563BC. During his reign Babylon became the largest city in the world and featured the hanging gardens, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar ruled over the entire known world, many lived in fear of him, yet in Daniel 4 he is terrified by a dream (vv5-17). Daniel interprets the dream, telling Nebuchadnezzar of his failure to acknowledge the Most High who is over him. Daniel advises him to repent and turn to God (v27). Nebuchadnezzar ignores the warning. One year later, when walking on the roof of his palace he said: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30)

This is a clear example of pride. Pride is self-conceit, self-centredness, pride focuses is on what I have done, or what I will do: ‘is this not what I have built by my power?’ Pride’s focus is on living for ourselves, drawing attention to ourselves: ‘for the glory of my majesty’, rather than living for God.

Pride is a focus on self and the service of self, a pursuit of self-recognition and self-exaltation, and a desire to control and use all things for self (Stuart Scott, From Pride to Humility)

2. What’s wrong with pride?

Was it wrong for Nebuchadnezzar to be proud? After all he was a great king, a great military leader. Wasn’t he right to say, this is the great Babylon I have built? The problem, as he was told in the dream is that there is a greater King who had given him everything. Four times in Daniel 4 we hear this phrase or words like it: The Most High is Sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he pleases (v17, 25, 32, 35). It wasn’t Nebuchadnezzar’s doing that he was born the eldest son of a Babylonian King instead of son of a slave in some distant land. It wasn’t Nebuchadnezzar’s doing that he had intelligence or strength or even life.

We can be like Nebuchadnezzar and think, look at what I’ve achieved in my life or what I’ve accumulated, but how much of it is our doing that we we’ve lived where we have, rather than in a country where there’s no escape from the poverty cycle? How much of it is our doing that we were not born with HIV from our parents, or suffered Malaria at a young age, like so many in Africa. How much of it is our doing that we have intelligence, or strength to work, or even breath? None.

The problem with pride is that we take the glory that belongs to our Creator. Instead of living for him, we live for ourselves. Pride is lying to ourselves and others by overstating our greatness, and stealing what does not belong to us. Pride traps us in a delusion of our own importance. John Piper tweeted recently: On every scale of excellence God is infinitely greater than the best person you’ve ever heard of. He’s right, God’s greatness is breathtaking, he is worth marvelling at, he is worth drawing people’s attention to. Pride is when we want to take what really belongs to God, and draw attention to ourselves instead.

3. Can proud hearts be changed?

Daniel 4 shows us proud hearts can be changed. Nebuchadnezzar had a proud heart, but here he gives us his testimony. He begins and ends telling us how great God is: It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation… Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. (Daniel 4:2-3,37)

Nebuchadnezzar demonstrates that proud hearts can be changed by being  broken, humbled and receiving God’s grace. Nebuchadnezzar receives a terrible discipline from God. He is driven away from his people. His hair grew long like feathers, his nails grew long like the claws of a bird, he ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew. Yet God used this discipline for Nebuchadnezzar’s good. Eventually, he humbles himself and acknowledges God, his throne is restored and he becomes even greater.

Just as God humbled Nebuchadnezzar for his ultimate good, so God can use hardship in our lives to humble us, and help us see our complete dependence on him. The real cure for our pride comes in seeing the humbling of one far greater than Nebuchadnezzar. Jesus could look around a far greater dominion than Nebuchadnezzar’s and say the words Nebuchadnezzar said, but he would be right: He could say ‘Is this not the world I created by my mighty power and for my glory?’ and he’d be absolutely correct (Colossians 1:16). Yet this greatest King, Jesus was humbled. Nor forcibly, rather, Jesus chose to humble himself: Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-7)

The way for pride to be humbled is to see what Jesus went through on the cross. When we realise our sin against God is so serious that it requires Jesus’ death for us to be forgiven, there’s no room for us to have pride in ourselves. The cross shows us we’re no better than anyone else, we’ve all lived for ourselves instead of God, it’s pointless looking down on others, we are just as guilty before God as they are.

The cross also shows us God’s grace. In Jesus humbling himself we have both an example to follow, and the power through which we can do it. The cross of Jesus gives us power to move from pride towards humility.

4. Some practical examples in moving from pride towards humility?

a) Growing in gratitude: Our pride shows when we rarely thank God or others. Nebuchadnezzar thanked no one but himself for his kingdom. He was wrong, God had given it to him. After God humbled him, he praised God for who he is and what he’s done. One way we can work at moving from pride towards humility is to regularly thank God, and notice and thank the people God brings into our lives who contribute in various ways.

b)  Talking less about ourselves: Pride shows when our speech is full of ourselves. Nebuchadnezzar’s proud speech was about himself, but after God humbled him he wanted to tell everyone about God, he begins and ends the chapter talking about God. One way we show we are moving from pride towards humility is through talking less about ourselves and seeking to listen to others. When you talk, use your speech to glorify God, and encourage and build others up.

c) Being less impatient or irritable: Our pride shows in the way we treat others, we may put them down, or be impatient or angry with them. Often our anger shows our focus is on ourselves, we’re not getting what we want. We move from pride to humility by showing patience with others, just as God has been patient with us, not looking down on them, but extending to them the grace God has shown to us.

d) Being less concerned what others think of us: Our pride will show in
constantly being concerned what others think of us. We may have ‘perfectionist’ tendencies because we want to look good, or we may be devastated by criticism. Through the cross we realise, that before God we’re worse than the worst things others know of us, yet in Christ we are fully accepted by God. It doesn’t matter what others think of us. Moving from pride to humility means we’ll try to learn from our critics, and try to love them, extend grace to them, and be more concerned for God’s name than we are for ours.

 e) Being willing to admit wrong and ask forgiveness: Our pride shows when instead of admitting we’re wrong we try to cover it up or minimise it, or just ignore it. Humility shows in saying: I’m wrong, I’m sorry, please forgive me. It’s the cross that gives us power to say sorry to God and to others, as we experience God’s forgiveness. It’s through the cross we can be moving from pride towards humility.

Through the cross of Jesus, may God help us to say, along with Nebuchadnezzar: Now I, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.