Books I Will Read This Year:

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For Study:

ESV Study Bible

[Community Group]

• The Gospel of John
• River West Church preaching series: The Gospel of John (Podcast)

[Men's Group]

• Paul’s Letter to the Romans
• Luther: Lectures on Romans

This volume is a collection of Martin Luther’s lectures that were given during a class he taught at the University of Wittenberg on the book of Romans. This collection is quite possibly the greatest work by Luther as he addresses all the facets of the epistle in his own sixteenth century, Augustinian monk fashion. This is a verse-by-verse exposition translated from the collection that was not published until the early twentieth century. These lectures were given shortly before the German Reformation took form but you can see in Luther’s words the Reformation already forming in his mind.

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For Devotions:

ESV Journaling Bible

ESV Chronological Reading Guide

iTunes Daily Podcast

Daily Reader Feed

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Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave by Ed Welch

Will we worship ourselves and our own desires, or will we worship the true God?
“Destroys the myth that addiction is a disease and sin is a sickness. Welch shows that the hopeless cycle of ’sickness, recovery, and relapse’ must be replaced with the biblical view of sin, salvation, and sanctification. As a pastor, biblical counselor, and redeemed (not recovering) ex-heroin addict, I believe Welch has given every pastor, parishioner, and anyone caught in the bondage of idolatry/addiction a biblical road map to lasting freedom.” – Peter Garich

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Death by Love by Mark Driscoll

Real people. Real sin. Transformed lives. A compilation of heartfelt letters written from a pastor to his people that explains Jesus’ work on the cross.

Death by Love is a unique book on the cross of Jesus Christ. While many books debate the finer points of the doctrine of the atonement, what is often lost are the real-life implications of Jesus’ death on the cross for those who have sinned and have been sinned against. Written in the form of pastoral letters, Death by Love outlines the twelve primary effects of Jesus’ death on the cross and connects each to the life of a different individual.

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Books I Hope to Read This Year:

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Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas

With the same challenge and inspiration that helped make Sacred Marriage so popular for so many couples, Gary Thomas turns his attention to the spiritual side of parenting; specifically, how the spiritual journey of parenting comprises one of the most influential aspects of spiritual formation that a person will ever know. Unless we are stone cold spiritually, virtual spiritual corpses, the journey of caring for, rearing, training, and loving children will mark us indelibly and powerfully. We cannot be the same people we once were; we will be forever changed and altered.

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The Prodigal God by Tim Keller

Newsweek called Timothy Keller “a C. S. Lewis for the twenty-first century” in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, he uses one of the best-known Christian parables to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.

Taking his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity, Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable, Jesus reveals God’s prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and the skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.

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Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter by Nancy Guthrie

So that we all may linger at the cross during the Lenten season-and stay near it the whole year through-editor Nancy Guthrie has compiled this special anthology. It draws from the works and sermons of classic theologians such as Luther, Edwards, Spurgeon, Ryle, and Augustine, and from leading contemporary communicators such as John Piper, R. C. Sproul, Francis Schaeffer, John MacArthur, Skip Ryan, and Joni Eareckson Tada to help readers enter into an experience of Christ’s passion and anchor their hope in the power of his resurrection. Each essay in this collection holds to a high view of Scripture and expounds on a particular aspect of the Easter story using the appropriate Scripture passage from the ESV Bible. These readings are sure to prepare people’s hearts for a fresh experience of the cross each and every Easter season.

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The Cross of Christ by John Stott

The universal symbol of the Christian faith is not a crib nor a manger but a gruesome cross. Yet many people are unclear about its meaning, and cannot understand why Christ had to die. In this magisterial book John Stott explains the significance of Christ’s cross and answers the objections commonly brought against biblical teaching on the atonement.

John’s Stott’s modern classic combines an excellent biblical expoistion, and a characteristically thoughtful study of Christian belief, with a searching call to the church to live under the cross.

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A Book You’ll Actually Read (4-part series) by Mark Driscoll

[On Church Leadership]

Cheap, simple, and you can read it in an hour. Mark Driscoll will guide you through the 6 important areas of church leadership with clear Biblical teaching and a raw sense of humor. You’ll explore the topics eldership, deacons, members, and women in leadership-with plenty of surprises along the way.

Topics: Elders, Deacons, Members, Jesus in the Church, Women in leadership, Organizing the Church, Air war and ground war

[On the Old Testament]

All of the most controversial questions in the Old Testament are answered in a simple, succinct and inexpensive way in A Book You’ll Actually Read: On the Old Testament. In one hour you’ll be acquainted with the Old Testament-who wrote it, how it’s books were chosen as scripture, what Jesus says about It, and much more.

Topics: What is the big idea of the Old Testament?, How can we study the Old Testament?, Who wrote it?, How books were chosen as scripture?, What does Jesus say about the Old Testament?

[On the New Testament]

A couple bucks and one hour will get you a solid and simple introduction to the New Testament. Who wrote it? How was it translated? Can I trust it? You’ll be able to answer all of these questions, and more after reading A Book You’ll Actually Read: On the New Testament.

Topics: How was it written?, Are our translations trustworthy?, How can we study it?, What is the central point of the New Testament?

[On Who is God?]

The most important question every human must answer is this… Who is God? Theology is filled with big words and big ideas-this book is packed with them, but they’ve been boiled down to short and simple explanations that you’ll actually read.

Topics: Knowledge of God, Common misunderstandings about God, The nature of God, The incarnation of God, Worship of God

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The Drama Of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach To Christian Theology by Kevin Vanhoozer

Observing a strange disappearance of doctrine within the church, Kevin Vanhoozer argues that there is no more urgent task for Christians today than to engage in living truthfully with others before God. He details how doctrine serves the church-the theater of the gospel-by directing individuals and congregations to participate in the drama of what God is doing to renew all things in Jesus Christ. Taking his cue from George Lindbeck and others who locate the criteria of Christian identity in Spirit-led church practices, Vanhoozer relocates the norm for Christian doctrine in the canonical practices, which, he argues, both provoke and preserve the integrity of the church’s witness as prophetic and apostolic.

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Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

Two pastors outline and apply a pair of overarching biblical principles that call the current body of Christ to a deep restructuring of its life and mission.

In Total Church, Chester and Timmis first outline the biblical case for making gospel and community central and then apply this dual focus to evangelism, social involvement, church planting, world missions, discipleship, pastoral care, spirituality, theology, apologetics, youth and children’s work. As this insightful book calls the body of Christ to rethink its perspective and practice of church, it charts a middle path between the emerging church movement and conservative evangelicalism that all believers will find helpful.

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Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

Vintage Church defines a biblical church as one that properly balances the eternal truths of Scripture with timely, relevant methods designed to engage the culture.

The book in the popular Re:Lit series picks up where Vintage Jesus leaves off, beginning with a focus on the person and work of Jesus and then exploring the confessional, experiential, and missional aspects of his church. This study grows out of the vintage concept of taking timeless truths from Scripture-truths about church leadership, preaching, baptism, communion, and more-and blending them with aspects of contemporary culture, such as multi-campus churches and the latest forms of technology, to reach people with the gospel.

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“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). My main resolution for 2009 is to die. Die to self. I need to learn how to be a more faithful cross-bearer, not a better person. If I don’t let go of my life this year and let the Spirit do his work, I’m going to crash and burn hard, I’m sure of it. It’s hard to know what a new year will bring. The Lord has blessed me abundantly, I never want to forget that; I have a beautiful pregnant wife, a baby girl on the way, the resources to provide for them, and a relationship with God that is deepening every day.

This is the first year in a long time that I’ve had the opportunity to devote serious time to reading and studying Scripture. I’ve been up to my ears for the past 8 years in business textbooks and MBA curriculum, and I feel blessed with the chance to start the year off digging deep into theology. 2009 is going to be Gospel-saturated. Of course, I know that it”ll be a struggle to maintain discipline with the sleep deprivation and the crazy schedule that comes with a newborn baby, so I’m keeping my list pretty short and my expectations low. With the baby coming in mid-March and recently being laid off from my job, I have a lot on my plate. The Lord has put me in a place of humility and complete dependence on him. My faith will surely be tested. If don’t stay close to Jesus in this season, and I begin to distance myself from God’s Word, the effects will be devastating.

Being unemployed with a baby on the way is a terrifying thing to face. The stakes are high and the pressure is weighing on me in a way that I’ve never felt before. In spite of all this, the main question I need to answer this year is: What has Christ freed me from? That’s really what matters. Do I need a Savior? Is this life about Jesus, or is this all about me? Can I reflect the discipline, peace and joy of Christ in the midst of these challenging circumstances? Can I worship God, chase hard after Jesus, repent of sin, love my family, and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit even when the chips are down? Or will I bend inward and fall apart. These are the questions that need to be answered in 2009.

Back to basics. If I accomplish anything this year, a deeper relationship with Christ through devotional reading, meditation and prayer will be my major focus and goal. For my devotions, I hope to gain a greater grasp of the Story of God and biblical theology with the ESV’s chronological reading guide and audio podcast. In regard to in-depth study, I have the incredible opportunity to study the Gospel of John in community through the preaching series at River West and our small group, as well as tackle Paul’s Letter to the Romans in tandem with Luther’s Lectures on Romans through a men’s discipleship group.  Above is the short list of books that I’m reading this year, and some others that I hope to read. I pray that the Lord will keep me close, that he will increase as I decrease, that he will strengthen and galvanize me for the trials ahead…but most of all I pray that Christ would keep my eyes focused on the cross rather than my own efforts and accomplishments.