Book review: Jay Bakker- Fall to grace

Fall to grace
Jay Bakker


As the son of fallen televangelists, Jay Baker is an unlikely candidate to be talking about the grace of God but he does it passionately in Fall To Grace.

Rather than getting bogged down in what happened to him and his family, he focuses on the grace of God he discovered. It is such an important message because there are no doubt many like him who grow up in church but never hear or grasp that God’s grace is a free gift that they do not need to earn through doing the right thing.

While his passion is admirable and he says some things that are very important for people to hear, the book does have some significant flaws. While certainly we cannot in any way earn our salvation, right living is the worshipful response we should be making to God’s grace. Holiness is not an optional added extra we can take on if we want our lives to work a bit better. That does seem to go missing book. It makes it sound as though grace means you can do whatever you want and should let others do the same. He also tends to ignore or dismiss scriptures that don’t fit his ideas and uses some questionable theological interpretations. These problems are all quite evident in his defense of homosexuality.

The book is an interesting read, but one that needs to be approached with a good deal of discernment. His passion is inspiring and he says many wonderful and true things about grace, but the incomplete or questionable theology he demonstrates at times prevent me from giving this book an unqualified recommendation.



Review copy provided by Hachette Book Group and netGalley

Book review: Thom and Jess Rainer- The Millennials

The Millennials
Thom and Jess Rainer

Young adults are often the subject of much stereotyping in the media and by members of other generations. In The Millennials, Thom and Jess Rainer present their findings from extensive interviewing of young adults.

The book presents a fascinating snapshot of the views and priorities of American young adults on a wide variety of topics. In addition to statistics the book quotes extensively from their interviews. Some of the responses in areas like respect for authority will likely come as a surprise. Responses to some other topics like organised religion are predictable but it still may be helpful to hear the conclusions in such to the point terms.

I am somewhat skeptical of some of the conclusions about how the millennial generation is going to change society for the better. While I don’t doubt the good intentions of many of the interview subjects, I am not convinced that the intentions will be as well acted on as the authors believe.

I “read” this book in audio format. While the narration was clear and easy enough to listen to, it didn’t really work well for me in audio. I think this was mostly to do with all the quotes.

If you are interacting with young adults in the workplace or ministry this could be a good resource to help you understand them better. Others may find it interesting but a bit long.


Review copy provided by christianaudio.com

Pray for Australia

Just a brief interuption from the normal content to request prayer for my country, Australia

While Australia tends to often have droughts at the moment we are getting a lot of rain. Way too much rain in some cases. Although there was predictions that there would be floods in my area, thankfully my area has remained flood free so far. Others have not been so fortunate. Flooding is taking place in several states but by far the worst hit is Queensland, the state in the north east of the country.

The news coming out of Queensland is quite scary. The floods have been so intense in places that they have been described as being like an inland tsunami. Houses, cars and people in their path don't stand much of a chance as some of the horror movie like footage coming from the area makes graphically clear. People have been killed and many many houses destroyed in a number of towns across the region. Worryingly the water is still rising  in the state capital Brisbane where it is thought tens of thousands of houses could be flooded. That's a lot of people homeless. Then there is all the damage to businesses, community facilities and infrastructure. Very nasty stuff.

Please pray

• That the floodwaters would not rise as much as expected and that many homes would be spared. 
• For those who have already had their houses flood, many of whom are no win emergency evacuation centers.
• For those who have lost loved ones in the floods
• For rescue teams who have the difficult task of looking for the dead and wounded. 
• For those involved the emergency respone. 
• For  leaders such as Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Queensland state premier Anna Bligh.
• That the resources needed to help the suffering and rebuild would be available. 
• That the Christian community would respond in a sensitive and helpful way to this tragedy and that the small section of the Christian community here that is prone to responding in an insensitive manner to disasters would not gain attention for their views. 

If you would like to follow what has happened, you can do so at The Age or ABC online

If you wish to make a donation to help flood victims you can do so via the Premier’s Disaster relief appeal

Joanna's Singapore Adventures makes a (brief) return

Those of you who have been visiting her for a while might remember a blog I ran in 2009 called Joanna's Singapore Adventures. It featured stories and photos from my time living in Singapore and traveling around Asia. Since I moved home in January 2010 I haven't been posting there for obvious reasons. I am pleased to announce that I since I will be back in Singapore for a few weeks soon that Joanna's Singapore Adventures is coming back! I will post a few of the best photographs at Joanna Muses, but if you would like to see more or to read about my adventures, please subscribe at Joanna's Singapore Adventures (joannainsingapore.com)

Photos: Bendigo, Australia

Resource roundup 10-1-11

Free Josh McDowell ebooks
You can download some free ebooks from Josh McDowell at his website They seem to be of older, out of print books. Topics include apologetics, relationships and children's fiction. 

Free ebooks of Christian classics
At Puritan Library you can download free ebooks of classic Christian works by authors such as Jonathon Edwards, John Owen, Richard Baxter and many more. Many of the downloads are available in kindle and epub formats.

Heaps of free Mark Driscoll sermons
At the Mars Hill Church website you can download heaps of sermons by Mark Driscoll. I'm currently listening to the 2 Timothy series

Book review: Carl Trueman- Republocrat

Republocrat 
Carl Trueman

In Rebulocrat, Carl Trueman points out the inconsistencies and flaws with Christian political engagement of both the right and left wing varieties and proposes how we may more thoughtfully engage with the political process.

I really enjoyed and appreciated this book. He says many of the things I’ve wished to say about Christian engagement in politics and says them so much better than I could have. It is likely I will refer people to segments of this book when discussion of Christians and politics comes up. He also says some things, particularly about Christian celebrity culture, that I have from time to time needed said to me! I also found his ideas about how a secularization can take religious looking forms particularly fascinating.

Some of the discussion of the history and ideological background of the American and British political system may be a little complicated for readers who don’t have a background in the area but most readers should be able to get the big idea at least. Since I am an Australian citizen, it was interesting to learn about two different systems to the one I vote in. He is a fantastic writer so even the complicated sections are not painful to get through.

While the book will have most use to American readers due to the focus on the American political and religious context, it is an excellent read for all Christians who want to be thoughtfully and biblically involved in politics. I highly recommend it.



review copy courtesy of P&R Publishing & NetGalley

Book review: Jerry Bridges- The pursuit of holiness

The pursuit of holiness
Jerry Bridges

Holiness seems to be a topic that Christians often have difficulty dealing with. Sometimes this difficulty manifests itself in mistaken beliefs about earning salvation, sometimes in petty legalism and sometimes in trying way too hard to not be legalistic. The pursuit of holiness attempts to explain what holiness is, why it is important and how a Christian would go about pursuing holiness.

He does a good job of emphasising the necessity of us making effort towards holiness without falling into the trap of making it sound as though we earn our way right with God. This can be a hard balance to find. The first few chapters especially would be worth going over a couple of times to ponder what he has to say.

One particularly helpful chapter is the one on pursuing holiness and aiding other peoples pursuit of holiness when it comes to activities which the bible does not prohibit but that some would feel the need to abstain from. This chapter alone would make the book worth reading. Another particularly helpful emphasis is on personal responsibility to sin. While certainly external factors and internal predispositions can make particular sins easier to give into for some, personal responsibility is important to emphasize.

I think this book is worth reading for all Christians. It isn’t long (4 hours in audio or 179 pages in print) but gives lots of good food for thought.

You can get the audiobook for free until the end of January 2011 at christianaudio.com


Review copy provided by christianaudio.com