Many of you have asked about donating books to the Salt Book Cart. Please see our wish list on Amazon for specific titles that we are looking for. We accept new or used books in good condition.
Other books that are donated will be reviewed as time allows and may be added to the book cart, or traded for other books, or given away. You can also send titles of books you would like to donate to saltbookblog@gmail.com for review before bringing them to Salt.
Thanks!
Filed under Uncategorized
In Salt this past Sunday Ralph Borde told us about this book by Gregg Matte, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Houston. All proceeds from the book purchased from the As Our Own website will go directly to support the ministry of As Our Own!
About the book:
“Pastor Gregg points readers to each of Jesus’ seven I AM statements in the Gospel of John and then helps them live in light of those truths. It is his firm belief that when we truly know God for who He is and how He loves, we are changed in who we are and how we love and live.
The beauty of this truth threads through God’s loving work in the life of our daughter Shanti. When Pastor Gregg heard her story, he knew it would demonstrate to his readers how knowing God changes us inside and out. He features Shanti’s story on pages 119–120.”
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unPLANNED: The dramatic true story of a former Planned Parenthood leader’s eye-opening journey across the life line by Abby Johnson.
I found this to be a really powerful story in several ways. In the first chapter Abby tells the story of how watching an actual abortion on ultrasound caused her to leave her position as director of a Planned Parenthood clinic. You can read this part of the story here:
The other aspect of the book that I thought was really important is how she describes both her time on the pro-choice side and her interactions with the different pro-life groups that would be at the fence of the clinic. It’s important for those advocating for life to understand the impact of their actions as protestors.
She shows very clearly how the protestors who came with anger and hatred pushed the Planned Parenthood workers further and further away, while those who faithfully and prayerfully came showing kindness and genuine care eventually had a great impact. We need to learn from their example of how to reach those on the other side, especially when there is so much at stake. This is a great book to help us do that.
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Pastor Lutzer recommended an article from Newsweek in his sermon last Sunday. Here’s the link if you want to read it: The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
The article says, “a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop.”
The media is largely silent on this issue but here’s an example of someone who is speaking out.
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Pastor Lutzer has been talking the past few weeks about the importance of praying Scripture. His blog Pray With Me gives examples of how to do this. If you’d like to learn more, we also have two books in our Salt Book Cart that you can check out:
A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers by D.A. Carson
If you’ve been around Salt for awhile, you’ve probably heard Pastor Steve recommend this book. It’s really worth reading. D.A. Carson, a leading New Testament scholar, goes through several of the prayers of Paul and takes a look at his priorities in prayer. Carson also shares some additional practical help, including lessons on prayer he has learned from other Christians.
“If some generations need to learn that God is not particularly impressed by long-winded prayers, and is not more disposed to help us just because we are garrulous, our generation needs to learn that God is not impressed by the kind of brevity that is nothing other than culpable negligence. He is not more disposed to help us because our insincerity and spiritual flightiness conspire to keep our prayers brief. Our generation certainly needs to learn something more about persistence in prayer…”
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Praying God’s Word: Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds by Beth Moore
This book is helpful in learning to pray Scripture. It is arranged topically and provides prayers paraphrased from Scripture about overcoming fourteen common strongholds: idolatry, unbelief, pride, deception, the insecurity of feeling unloved, feelings of rejection, addiction, food-related strongholds, feelings of guilt, despair resulting from loss, unforgiveness, depression, sexual strongholds, and the enemy.
The main purpose of the book “is to develop the mind of Christ in areas that seek to hold us captive. With every Scripture-prayer, we are asking God to fill our minds with His thoughts instead of ours.”
“We will never win any spiritual battle without prayer, but when the heat of battle has momentarily cooled, the plunder from the battle is a far greater intimacy with God. Prayer is not the means to an end. In so many ways, it is the end itself.”
(There is also a related devotional available called Praying God’s Word Day By Day by Beth Moore that has a Scripture prayer and short devotional for each day of the year.)
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Filed under Prayer
What was going on in the German church leading up to and during the Holocaust?
Pastor Lutzer’s book, Hitler’s Cross: The revealing story of how the Cross of Christ was used as a symbol of the Nazi agenda, seeks to answer this question. In the book, Lutzer describes how “Evil held in check often erupts when the conditions are right. When the restraints are gone, when people are desperate, and when power is up for grabs, the human heart is laid bare for all to see.”
Here are a few other quotes that stood out to me:
“If the First Reich prepared the way for Hitler by unifying church and state, the Second Reich contributed to the paralysis of the church by teaching that there must be a split between private and public morality. Bismarck claimed to have had a conversion experience to Christianity while visiting the home of some pietistic friends. But he was faced with the realization that as a political statesman he had to violate the moral principles that governed his private behavior as a Christian. He reasoned that when acting as a servant of the state, a man was not bound by the same morality he should have as an individual. The state, it was argued, should not be judged according to conventional law because its responsibilities went beyond ordinary human values.”
“By and large the Germans offered little resistance to totalitarianism [...] read what Gerald Suster writes: “Many welcomed the abolition of individual responsibility for one’s actions; for some it is easier to obey than to accept the dangers of freedom. Workers now had job security, a health service, cheap holiday schemes; if freedom meant starvation, then slavery was preferable.” The man for whom the Germans had waited had arrived. As long as the economy was strong, people didn’t care whether they had freedom of speech, freedom of travel, or freedom of elections. Under the Republic, people were starving in the big cities; bread on the table was more important than a ballot at a voting booth.”
Lutzer warns, “We are naive if we think Nazi Germany cannot happen again. In fact, the Bible predicts that it will.” Besides showing us a new perspective on Nazi Germany, this book also reminds us where our focus needs to be:
“The church has always been poised between two gods and two crosses. On the one side is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who died on a Roman cross, executed for the sins of the world. On the other side are any number of lesser gods and with them other crosses–those promises of deliverance that offer a false salvation. Yes, we also face the temptation of bowing before the temporal gods that entice us to combine Christ with other religions, Christ and a political agenda, Christ and worldly pursuits. The experience of the church in Nazi Germany reminds us that Christ must always stand alone; He must be worshiped not as One who stands alongside the governmental leaders of this world but as standing above them, as King of kings and Lord of lords.”
E.M.
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Filed under History
You want to follow God and do what He wants you to do, but how can you know what that is? Is there a feeling you’re supposed to have, or a sign from heaven that will appear when you find the right path? Do you need a Bible verse for every decision you make?
When I was a student at Moody Bible Institute, I had a group presentation on a book we had chosen to read on the topic of God’s will. We presented our summary of the book to the class and were about to sit down, feeling very satisfied with our work.
Instead of telling us we did a good job, our professor tore our presentation apart, bombarding us with questions about God’s will that none of us could answer. We stood there in stunned silence. We had no idea what had been wrong with the book that we read. (I’m not going to say who it was written by, but given the author, we were really surprised that our professor had a problem with the content, which was filled with scripture and a strong focus on prayer.)
Before allowing us to sit down he said, “You need to read Decision Making and the Will of God by Garry Friesen.”
The “traditional” view of following God’s will, common in many churches and Christian books, teaches that you are supposed to figure out the will that God has already decided for your life and then make your decisions accordingly (and if you don’t get it right, you won’t experience God’s best for your life or be in “the center of His will”).
If you’ve been wondering about God’s will for your life, or have big decisions to make, you need to read Decision Making and the Will of God.
Filed under Christian Life
Lee Strobel has written another wonderful book, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity. His previous book, The Case for Christ, took on the claims of Christ by looking at the most powerful objections. This time Strobel takes on the most powerful objections to having faith in God.
He begins by telling the fascinating story of Charles Templeton, a man who was right there next to Billy Graham in the late 1940′s. Both Graham and Templeton were wrestling with the tough questions of Christianity. Graham came to the conclusion, “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word – by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word.” From there Graham started his evangelistic crusades for Christ and became the most famous preacher alive today. Templeton instead turned away from having faith in God and wrote the book, Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith.
From this fascinating, yet tragic, turn of events Strobel goes to different professionals in the field of Christian theology to help him answer some of the most powerful objections to the Christian faith, including:
With such a wide range of different objections to Christianity today, it’s impossible to put all of them in a single book, but Strobel does a good job of covering the most common objects. If you enjoy The Case for Faith, then I recommend his other books including The Case for Christ and The Case for a Creator. All three books have been turned into documentary films as well.
B.D.
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Filed under Gospel and Apologetics
The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus is Lee Strobel’s first installment in his “The Case for…” series. Lee Strobel, an atheist-turned-Christian, takes on a multitude of objections to believing in Christ. He questions Jesus’ existence and claims, the eyewitness testimonies, the documentary evidence, fulfilled prophecies, and the most significant and controversial part of Jesus’ life–the Resurrection.
In a style that Strobel will use throughout the series, he goes to different scholars who are experts in their field of study to help tackle these difficult questions. Fast-paced and in-depth, Strobel quickly moves from one question to another including:
There is a reason this is a Gold Medallion winning book and I recommend this read to anyone who has a difficult question on the Life of Christ.
Filed under Gospel and Apologetics
