Skip to content

Fundamentally Reformed

Musings of a Former Fundamentalist (IFB) Renewed by Reformed Theology

  • Home
  • My Story
  • Topics
    • Calvinism
    • Fundamentalism
    • KJV Only?
    • Music
  • Book Reviews
    • All Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • Media Reviews
    • About Reviews
    • Blog for Books
  • Links
    • Articles & Sermons
    • Reciprocal Blogroll
    • Study Tools
  • About
    • About Me
    • Media & Interviews
    • Partner Sites
    • My Commenting Policy
  • Contact
    • Advertising

Tag: account

Book Briefs: “Miracles: A Journalist Looks at Modern-Day Experiences of God’s Power” by Tim Stafford

January 12, 2013May 5, 2019 ~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Do you believe in miracles? While Christians universally answer yes, this question brings up a myriad of questions for the Church today. Many Christians are increasingly cautious of affirming miracles because of the damage done publicly by faith healers and outright shenanigans. Popular books abound recounting personal stories of being transported to heaven, seeing Jesus, talking to angels and of course, being healed. Should every such story be believed? And if we refuse to believe are we being cynical and unbelieving in our outlook?

Beyond this larger question, the average Christian often has to make tricky decisions in real life scenarios. They are confronted with a claim to a miracle in the life of someone they know at work or in their church. They are pressured to come to a Pentecostal revival where they can’t help but be skeptical of the outlandish behavior and incredible conclusions made by their friends. Just how are we to think about miracles, when we pray for them on behalf of our family and friends every day? We all know God can heal, and we want his healing touch, but we just aren’t sure that we should expect it, or what to do when we think we’ve really seen it.

Tim Stafford, a senior writer for Christianity Today steps into this quagmire and offers us some help in a remarkable new book titled, Miracles: A Journalist Looks at Modern-Day Experiences of God’s Power. Tim navigates this thorny problem by recounting a true story that he experienced in his church, a fairly high-brow, staid and conservative Presbyterian assembly, by his telling. A young man experienced a healing from a debilitating pain in his feet that had required crutches and a wheel chair for years. His family were understandably overjoyed at his sudden and dramatic healing experienced at another church several hours away. But they were a little disappointed that their fellow church members didn’t share all their enthusiasm.

Stafford uses this story as a case in point, and interviewed the family as well as other families affected by this story from his church. Tim also draws on his travels to far-flung corners of the globe, where the miraculous may be more common. But rather than basing his conclusions on eye-witness testimony, Stafford also surveys the Old and New Testaments and the early years of church history looking for takeaways that we can apply to this perpetually difficult question. The result is a lucid and eminently readable account of his exploration. And his book is more than a page-turner. He brings sage advice, common sense, and an open spirit to the topic as well as his own honest account of disappointment and growth in this area.

Stafford’s book won’t change the mind of the die-hard proponent of an extreme position on this issue. Those who see miracles around every corner will still find them, and those who hesitate to affirm the miraculous anywhere after Rev. 22, will equally be unconvinced. But for the average believer, without an axe to grind, Stafford’s treatment will be challenging and uplifting, and ultimately helpful. I was encouraged to trust in our miracle-working God more, and to see the miraculous in the ordinary means of grace that God so faithfully provides.

Pick up a copy of this book at any of the following online retailers: Christianbook.com, Amazon, or direct from Bethany House.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Bethany House. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

About Book Briefs: Book Briefs are book notes, or short-form book reviews. They are my informed evaluation of a book, but stop short of being a full-length book review.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Half the Church Book Giveaway (Sponsored by Zondervan)

April 9, 2011April 19, 2011 ~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Thanks to Zondervan, I am hosting a book giveaway on my blog for one free copy of Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women by Carolyn Custis James. Click here to read my review or check out the book trailer or the product page at Zondervan.com.

Details on the contest below.

Contest is now closed.

Congratulations to Andrew Smith, our random winner from the contest.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

“Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women” by Carolyn Custis James

April 8, 2011May 6, 2019 ~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

Many books are written to inform. Of those, several aim to change the reader’s opinion of the given topic. Only a few succeed in forcing the reader to rethink previous assumptions and actually see the world through an entirely new perspective. It takes a special talent to draw a reader out of their shell and get them to really engage with the vision the author is struggling to convey.

In Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women, Carolyn Custis James gives us a book of this exceedingly rare kind. She has a burden to share and she draws the reader in and delivers her message well. Her book is a riveting account of the trials of women in today’s world and a passionate plea aimed primarily at women, to take up the call and make their lives count for the kingdom of God.

Carolyn Custis James builds a case on the creation story of man and women being joint image-bearers for God called to subdue His world. She approaches the text with insight from studying today’s patriarchal societies of the Middle East. Her insight into the first few chapters of Genesis, the tales of Ruth and Esther and to several stories in the New Testament is alone worth the price of getting this book. She brings a fresh perspective and makes these passages come alive, yet she is not offering an innovative rewrite that unfaithfully handles God’s Word.

This book awakened in me a new awareness of the horrible prejudice and persecution women around the world endure. In India, girls between 1 and 5 are twice as likely to die as boys. They die of neglect and deprivation — no one cares for girls. And if they do make it into the young teenage years, they are open to being trafficked as a way to get rid of them. The fathers make a little bit of money out of it and get rid of the disgrace that is their daughter. The girls are abused in horrific ways. Not just India, in China a father is quoted as saying, “We don’t have to have daughters anymore!” This is his exclamation upon learning of technology that enables sex-selective abortion.

With the backdrop of such a world-wide low view of women, the author approaches the state of women in today’s church. She argues that too often our message for women only applies if they have a husband and children, and if their husband is living (or hasn’t left them). We ignore other women, and more than 50% of women are not in this class. She doesn’t denigrate motherhood, but she challenges us to see that being a woman is so much more than just having a motherhood role.

She stops short of openly challenging a complementarian position. Her message actually is worth listening to, by people on all sides of that debate. There are plenty of ways women can be involved in church-based and other ministry and yet not transgress Scriptural prohibitions. James shows how the very word “helper” (in Hebrew it is ezer) from Gen. 2 which describes the women, is usually a military term and often applied to God’s help for Israel. She shows how the language describing the Proverbs 31 women betokens a valorous, military context. She is literally, a “woman of valor”. The book calls women to champion the needs of suffering women, to rise up to God’s kingdom task of living out the gospel in this fallen world. These messages are needed by women in all kinds of churches.

While I still am bound by the word of God to see some divisions of roles in the home and the church, I was challenged to rethink just how much room and need there is for women to be active participants in the ministry God calls us to. I do think some of the church today is endeared of a traditional view which is not necessarily biblical. Our prizing of the motherly role, which is special (and which Carolyn Custis James seems not to give enough props to), can nevertheless be a message of despair for women who long to have children or long to be married but aren’t. Do we communicate to them that they should just sit around and wait, dolefully for Mr. Right? Or do we empower them to serve God with their whole being in a fulfilling way as women?

The book will stretch your mind and cause you to think, but it will be worth it. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this well written, riveting book. I highly recommend it.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Zondervan for review as part of the Half the Church Blog Tour. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

You can pick up a copy of this book at Amazon.com or through Zondervan, direct.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

“Naomi and Her Daughters: A Novel” by Walter Wangerin Jr.

November 19, 2010May 8, 2019 ~ Bob Hayton

Most Christians are familiar with the story of Naomi, and her famous daughter in law, Ruth. Naomi is one of the few women whose story is told at some length in the pages of the Christian Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. But as with so many other stories, many a reader has often wondered what it would be like to be there, living in Naomi’s day. The story as found in Scripture is evocative and powerful, but it hints at so much more.

Storytellers have long sought to embellish and add life to the stories of the Bible. Walter Wangerin Jr. takes up his pen to weave a rich tale around the life of Naomi. His novel Naomi and Her Daughters covers many Biblical accounts and situates the characters in the story firmly in a believing Jewish context. And in his storytelling, Wangerin transports us to life in Palestine circa 1100 B.C.

Without giving away the plotline, I can say he imagines Naomi’s life as a spiritual leader in the village of Bethlehem. He sees her adopting another daughter, whose story is recounted in another Old Testament book. He also recounts the tale of Boaz, finding him in other tales of Scripture. As the Biblical book of Ruth is situated before the accounts in Samuel and Kings, the mysterious period of the Judges must be its background. That era had its ups and downs and Wangerin traces the paths of the main characters through that turbulent period.

The book is a story of faith in a covenant keeping God — and of long periods of doubt. It’s a story of redemption and grace, and also the miseries of evil and suffering. War and peace, love and despair, bravery and cowardice, honor and depravity — the juxtapositions of human experience find their place in this story. The technique the author uses of bouncing back and forth between the past and the present helps the reader experience the story vicariously with all its ups and downs.

Wangerin doesn’t shy away from reading in between the lines and drawing out implications from the Scripture accounts. He puts psalms and Scripture promises in the mouths of the characters as well, and succeeds in bringing that day and age to life. In so doing, he runs the risk of interpreting accounts differently than the reader, but we will grant him this privilege. The history most likely didn’t play out as he envisions it, and at times the tale is more earthy than some readers will want. But I believe he has captured the heart and spirit of the tale of Naomi most powerfully.

Naomi’s tale has much relevance for our own day. Hers wasn’t a rosy life free of thorns. Hers wasn’t a happy-go-lucky faith detached from the realities of life in a sin-cursed and ever so fallen world. Her story is meant to inspire strong faith in a covenant-keeping God. Christians share Naomi’s God and can have Naomi’s faith. Sharing Naomi’s life story will help us find that faith, and Naomi and Her Daughters will help us in this quest.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Zondervan Publishing for review. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

Pick up a copy of this book at Amazon.com or through Zondervan direct.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posts navigation

Newer posts

Sponsors




Favorite Posts

  • 1 Thessalonians and the Church’s Greatest Need
  • A Survey of the Reformation: It’s History and Doctrine (series)
  • Calvinism & Evangelism
  • Defining KJV Onlyism
  • Minimizing the Gospel through Excessive Separation
  • My Explanation of the Five Points of Calvinism
  • Once Saved, Always Saved?!?!
  • The Real Meaning of 1 Thessalonians 5:22
  • Regeneration, Reception & Faith
  • The Gospel’s Work in Believers (series)
  • The Role of the Church in KJV Onlyism
  • Stomping Toes and Stomping Souls: The Moralistic Bent to Fundamentalist Preaching
  • Understanding the Land Promise (series)
  • Why Preachers Fall

Find Content

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

  • Important Free Book: “Finding the Right Hills to Die On” by Gavin Ortlund
  • The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible
  • A Christian Perspective on Trials – James 1
  • Sermon Download – High Priest of the Good Things That Have Come (Leviticus 9:1-24, Heb. 9:11-14)
  • Collection of Historic Bibles from Hendrickson (Daily Deal)
  • Book Briefs: “The Bible Answer Man: Walter Martin and Hank Hanegraaff” by Cindee Martin Morgan
  • “Paul vs. James: What We’ve Been Missing in the Faith and Works Debate” by Chris Bruno

Recent Comments

  • Thiago Trivelato on Important Free Book: “Finding the Right Hills to Die On” by Gavin Ortlund
  • Kevin on Understanding the Land Promise: Part 2
  • Palan on Charles Finney and The Altar Call
  • Tice on My Story
  • Tice on My Story

Latest Reviews

  • The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible
  • Book Briefs: “The Bible Answer Man: Walter Martin and Hank Hanegraaff” by Cindee Martin Morgan
  • “Paul vs. James: What We’ve Been Missing in the Faith and Works Debate” by Chris Bruno
  • Book Briefs: “He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World” by R. Albert Mohler Jr.
  • “The Sacrifice of Praise” by Herman Bavinck (Translated & Edited by Cameron Clausing and Gregory Parker Jr.)
  • Book Briefs: “Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It” by Adam Hamilton
  • “Confronting Old Testament Controversies” by Tremper Longman III

See all my reviews here

My Reviews by the Numbers

2006: 3 reviews 2007: 6 reviews
2008: 6 reviews 2009: 28 reviews
2010: 30 reviews 2011: 42 reviews
2012: 24 reviews 2013: 28 reviews
2014: 20 reviews 2015: 14 reviews
2016: 2 reviews 2017: 9 reviews
2018: 7 reviews 2019: 14 (so far)
Grand Total: 233 book/media reviews from more than 40 publishers. See all my reviews.

Disclaimers

  • Reviews of any books/media on this site that have been supplied by the publisher are clearly marked with a disclaimer. All opinions remain my own.
  • As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
  • As an affiliate with New Growth Press and Westminster Bookstore, I benefit from purchases.

RSS Latest Books Read

  • Red: The Heroic Rescue (The Circle, #2) May 11, 2025
  • Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End May 7, 2025
  • Black: The Birth of Evil (The Circle, #1) April 9, 2025
  • Of Prayer and the Christian Life: Selected Writings from the Institutes March 27, 2025
  • Around the World in 80 Days March 8, 2025
  • Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time February 25, 2025
  • Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn't: The Beauty of Christian Theism February 21, 2025

2019 Reading Challenge

2019 Reading Challenge
Bob has read 20 books toward his goal of 40 books.
hide
20 of 40 (50%)
view books

Recommended Reading

  • Abraham’s Seed
  • Alex Chediak
  • Andy Naselli
  • Credo Mag Blog
  • Desiring God Blog
  • Evangelical Textual Criticism
  • Grace, Peace, & Glory
  • Justin Taylor
  • Kevin DeYoung
  • Misadventures of Capt’n Headknowledge
  • Reformation Theology
  • Theology for the Road
  • Trevin Wax
  • Tim Challies
  • Sharper Iron
  • Urban Missional
  • Worship Matters
  • Reciprocal Blogroll

Honors

  

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Privacy Policy

Credits & Etc.

Scripture Quotes from:
Scripture quotations taken from the English Standard Version. Click to learn more about the ESV Bible

All content on this website is copyrighted and protected by: MyFreeCopyright.com

•Entries Feed 
•Comments Feed 

   

Proudly powered by WordPress ~ Theme: Penscratch 2 by WordPress.com.
%d