Every Good Endeavor

Timothy Keller

Connecting Your Work To God's Work
ISBN 978-0-525-95270-1
253 pages
Dutton 2012

Excerpt from slip cover
In a work world that is increasingly competitive and insecure, people often have nagging questions: Why am I doing this work? Why is it so hard? Is there anything I can do about it?

Keller shows readers tha biblical wisdom is immensely relevant to our questions about our work. In fact, the Christian view of work - that we work to serve others, not ourselves - can provide the foundation of a thriving professional and balanced personal life.

Quotes
A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it and you do it for them rather than for yourself.

Work is the medium in which we offer ourselves to God. Work is the full expression of our faculties.

God milks the cows through the vocation of the mild maids. Martin Luther

If you do your work so well that by God's grace it helps others who can never thank you, you are serving the work, and truly loving your neighbor.

The Christian faith gives us a new and rich conception of work as partnering with GOd in His love and care for the world.

Just Do Something

Kevin DeYoung

ISBN 0-8024-5838-6
122 pages
Moody 2009

Excerpt from back of book
Too often, God's people tinker around with churches, jobs, and relationships, worrying that they haven't found God's perfect will for their lives. Or, even worse, they do absolutely nothing, stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting . . .waiting . . .waiting for clear, direct, unmistakable direction. But God doesn't need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He's already revealed His plan for our lives: to love Him with our whole hearts, to obey His Word, and after that, to do what we like.

Quotes
Doing the will of God means we say no to the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and our pride in possessions.

The will of God, as His will of desire, means that we do what is pleasing in His sight.

God does have a plan for our lives, but it is not one that He expects us to figure out before we make a decision.

We must renounce our sinful desire to know the future and to be in control. We are not gods. We walk by faith and not by sight. We risk because God does not risk. We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence, not because the future is known to us but because it is known to God.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK
A MUST READ FOR SENIORS IN HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS AND VERY USEFUL FOR ALL OF THE REST OF US

Rebels Rescued

Brian Cosby

A Student's Gide to Reformed Theology
ISBN 978-1-84550-980-4
103 pages
Christian Focus 2012

Excerpt from back cover
Have you ever had a shopping cart with a broken wheel? You push it around and all it wants to do is run into the sides of the aisle. If you were to let the cart go, it would immediately turn and smash into that case of pickles ahead!

You are the shopping cart! The bad wheel is your heart. It's always veering off, leading you away from what you were created to be. You were created for God's love and glory, but instead, your heart pulls you away from Jesus and into something much worse than a case of pickles.

Reformed theology teaches that, because we are more sinful than we could ever imagine, it can only be God who takes our sinful heart (that broken shopping cart wheel) and replaces it with one that has both the ability and the desire to seek him and follow him. By faith in Christ, you are no longer set to smash into the aisles of sinful destruction. No, he promises to carry us in the grip of his grace.

Generous Justice

Timothy Keller

ISBN 978-0-525-95190-2
189 pages
Dutton 2010

Excerpt from slip cover
It is commonly thought in secular society that the Bible is one of the greatest hindrances to doing justice. Isn't it full of regressive views? Didn't it condone slavery? Why would we look to the Bible for guidance on how to have a more just society? But Timothy Keller, pastor of New York City's Redeemer Presbyterian Church, challenges these preconceived beliefs and presents the Bible as a fundamental source for promoting justice and compassion for those in need. In Generous Justice, he explores a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous, gracious justice.

Quotes
When the Spirit enables us to understand what Christ has done for us, the result is a life poured out in deeds of justice and compassion for the poor.  Jonathan Edwards

Excerpts from Chapter 6 on "How we should do justice"

• How much should we help?
• Whom should we help?
• Under what conditions does your help proceed or end?
• In what way do we help?
• From where should we help?
• Always err on the side of being generous.
• We are not to give expecting gratitude.

The Book of the Dun Cow

Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Fiction
Harper Publishing

This book is just a good fun read.  Wangerin has an interesting writing style and quite an imagination.  If you just want to relax with some good, clean fiction, give this book a try.

The Ten Commandments

J. Douma

Manual for Christian Living
ISBN 0-87552-237-8
353 pages
P&R Publishing 1992

Excerpt from slip cover
In this commentary on the commandments, Douma tackles the difficult yet practical issues of or time with insight thoroughness  and faithfulness to God's Word. Discussions on the commandments span current issues from religious art to sorcery and witchcraft, from Sunday observance to civil disobedience, from abortion to euthanasia and suicide.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK

Giving Up Gimmicks

Brian H. Cosby

ISBN 978-1-59638-394-4
138 pages
P&R Publishing 2012

Excerpt from back cover
Far too many teenagers raised in Christian homes drift away from the church after high school. Why is this true? Could it be because youth groups, in seeking to elevate experience over ruth, have left teens dissatisfied and hungry for the truth?

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK

This is a must read for anyone involved or thinking of getting involved in youth ministy.