This issue also draws attention to another dangerous trend I have observed in the local church:  the “non-Bible” Bible study.  Church bulletins frequently provide lists of weekly “Bible” studies focusing on books other than the Bible.  Yikes!  As good as they are, John Piper’s Desiring God or Ted Tripp’s Shepherding a Child’s Heart are not in my Bible’s table of contents.  They are not inspired, but instead are wonderfully perspired reflections on the God-breathed Word.  But they are still just dirt!

This connection between the creation of God’s image-bearers and the origin of God’s Word is truly a wonder-filled reality.  It is wonderful because we, as God’s people, share a connection with His Word.  We were made to go together.  And if God has made people from dirt, imagine what He has done with paper and ink, and nouns and pronouns.

Title: Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission
Author: Darrin Patrick
Release Date: August 2010
Purchase options: Amazon, Direct from publisher

What’s Next for Francis Chan? A Conversation with Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris from Ben Peays on Vimeo.

Title: Jungle Warfare: A Basic Field Manual for Christians in Sales
Author: Christopher A. Cunningham
Release Date: August 2010
Purchase options: Amazon, Direct from publisher
Synopsis: Are you ready to fight the good fight? Every other sales book promises you great riches, cute techniques, and “amazing” questions to get your customer to buy from you. This is not every other sales book. Commerce and combat join forces in Jungle Warfare. Your enlistment asks for a 22-day tour of duty to explores battle-tested principles that Christopher Cunningham mined from his grandfather’s World War II field manual (stay fit…keep your wits…know your enemy…trust your commander) and culminates with a field-support Q&A addressing thorny questions that all professionals face. Every day, you walk through a jungle. Pick up this book and you’ll never walk through it alone, again.

Buy		Read

Title: Closing the Window:  Steps to Living Porn Free
Author: Tim Chester
Release Date: November 2010
Purchase options: Amazon, Direct from publisher
Synopsis: Moving beyond pat answers or mere willpower, Tim Chester offers spiritual, practical and corporate resources for living porn free.  With assurance of God’s grace and cleansing power, we can change our desires and escape the traps and temptations of pornography.  Far too many Christian lives, marriages and ministries have been ruined by this addiction.  It’s time to close the window.

• Exposes the false promises of porn
• Offers practical resources for avoiding temptation and building accountability

Title: The Resurrection of Jesus:  A New Historiographical Approach
Author: Michael R. Licona
Release Date: November 2010
Purchase options: Amazon, Direct from publisher
Synopsis: After all the debate over the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, could there be any new approach to the problem?  Michael Licona believes there is, and he points us to the major flaw in previous efforts:  our historiographical orientation and practice.  Here is a study with an extensive consideration of historiography and the particular problem of investigating claims of miracles.  Future approaches to dealing with this “prize puzzle” of New Testament study will need to be routed through The Resurrection of Jesus.

• Provides an up-to-date treatment of New Testament historiography
• Offers fair and critical analysis of the major hypotheses

Title: Science, Creation and the Bible
Authors: Richard F. Carlson, Tremper Longman III
Release Date: November 2010
Purchase options: Amazon, Direct from publisher
Synopsis: Richard Carlson and Tremper Longman address the long-standing problem of how to relate scientific descriptions of the beginnings of the universe with the biblical creation passages of Genesis.  Properly interpreting the biblical texts and clearly identifying the nature of scientific claims are key.  With those in hand we see how Christian revelation and scientific findings can collaborate in the investigation of origins.

• Written by a physicist and a biblical scholar

Title: Why Business Matters to God:  (And What Still Needs to Be Fixed)
Author: Jeff Van Duzer
Release Date: November 2010
Purchase Options: Amazon, Direct from publisher
Synopsis: This book explores the nature and meaning of doing business and finds it calls for much more than most think.  Jeff Van Duzer presents a profoundly Christian approach that integrates biblical studies with the disciplines of business and economics.  Looking beyond the place of ethical principles and the character of the individual, Van Duzer displays a vision of business that contributes to the very purposes of God.

• Uses an interdisciplinary approach drawing on biblical studies, theology and the disciplines of business and economics
• Provides an alternate paradigm to the existing emphasis on maximizing profits

Title: The Making of the New Testament:  Origin, Collection, Text & Canon
Author: Arthur G. Patzia
Release Date: February 2011
Purchase Options: Amazon, Direct from publisher
Synopsis: This revised and expanded edition of Arthur Patzia’s The Making of the New Testament is a textbook introduction to the origin, collection, copying and canonization of the New Testament documents.  Like shrewd detectives reading subtle whispers of evidence, biblical scholars have studied the trail of clues and pieced together the story of these books.

• Gives an overview of the evidence and theories on the New Testament Canon
• Explains how the documents were copied and transmitted over the centuries
• Surveys the basic elements and practices of textual criticism

Mr. Tabatt.
Thank you for your thoughtful review of The Real Story of the Exodus. I would like to make one correction. The identification of the Red Sea on the map is correct. I would refer you to your Bible Atlas to see that the Red Sea (now often referred to as the Gulf of Suez) is on the western shore of the Sinai peninsula between Sinai and Egypt. The Dead Sea (also known as the Salt Sea) is located farther north and east between the Biblical lands of Judah and Moab in Palestine. Thank you for the opportunity to make this correction.
-Scot Kinnaman, Senior Editor
Concordia Publishing House

My apologies to Scot for not posting a picture of the error in my original review. I have since scanned the 2nd to last page from the epilogue and have placed a red circle over each of the areas on the map labeled as the Red Sea. As Scot indicated in his comment, the Red Sea is known today as the Gulf of Suez, which is in the lower left-hand portion of the map between Egypt and Sinai. If you look to the north and east in the upper right-hand portion of the map, you will see that the Dead Sea or Salt Sea is mislabeled as the Red Sea. I did receive a very early review copy of this book, so it is possible that this was corrected in a later printing.

Format:

Review:
The Real Story of the Exodus is the third and final book in Dr. Paul L. Maier’s Old Testament trilogy for children.  Previous works in this trilogy are The Real Story of the Creation (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2007) and The Real Story of the Flood (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2008).  This new book follows the layout found in earlier books from this series, which is a prologue, twelve two-page chapters, and an epilogue.  The prologue briefly recounts the story of the Hebrew people from Adam through Jacob, explaining how they came to be enslaved in Egypt.  Each of the two-page chapters has a relevant picture on one page and a scripture passage along with a portion of the Exodus story on the opposite page.  The first ten chapters recount the events that take place throughout the book of Exodus.  Chapter eleven touches on Numbers 13, where the spies are sent in to Canaan.  Chapter twelve brings the story to a close referencing Deuteronomy 34:10 and the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua as well as the events surrounding the death of Moses. Finally the epilogue offers some additional insight, explaining that the Exodus story is the central event in the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, relating the salvation message inherent in the Exodus story and its parallels to Jesus’ death on Mount Calvary.

I would highly recommend this book for parents wanting to introduce their children to the Biblical story of the exodus. Parents and children alike will be engaged by Dr. Maier’s writing and captivated by Gerad Taylor’s beautiful illustrations.  While the reading level for this book is ages four to eight, it should be an enjoyable read for children as old as eleven or twelve.  I very much wanted to give this book a five start rating, but am only going to give it four stars due to an error on the map found in the epilogue and on the back cover of the book.  The error is that the Dead Sea is inadvertently labeled as the Red Sea.  I was very surprised that this mistake wasn’t caught during the editing process and I hope it will be corrected in future printings of this book.

Author / Illustrator information:
Paul L. Maier is a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University and a much-published author of both scholarly and popular works.  His areas of research include manuscript and text analysis, archaeology, and the comparison of secular and sacred sources from the first century A.D.  Dr. Maier also serves as the second vice-president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Gerad Taylor, born in Auckland, New Zealand, has worked for over twenty years as a freelance illustrator for the design, publishing, and advertising industries.  His clients include Coca-Cola, Heinle Publishing, Hinkler Publishing, Lion Nathan, and many others throughout the world.  Gerad lives with his wife, Anne, and children Madeline, Charlotte, and Max in Greytown, New Zealand.

Disclaimer:
This book was provided by the kind folks at Concordia Publishing House for review.

Related resources:

• The Very First Christmas (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1998)
• The Very First Easter (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1999)
• The Very First Christians (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2001)
• Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2004)
• The Real Story of the Creation (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2007)
• The Real Story of the Flood (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2008)

Format:

In the midst of our busy lives, it can sometimes seem convenient to relegate the teaching of scripture, prayer, and worship to the professionals at church.  While that may be the easy way out, as parents we must be mindful of God’s word, which exhorts us to minister to and teach their own children (see Deut. 4:9; 11:9).  Expanding on this theme, Our Home is like a Little Church introduces preschool age children to the doctrine of the home as a little church.  In addition, it serves as a gentle reminder to parents that the spiritual disciplines present in the church on Sunday should also be present in their little church throughout the rest of the week.

Touching on the topics of prayer, Bible reading, and worship, Our Home is like a Little Church contrasts church and home side by side, showing how these spiritual disciplines can and should be present in both our churches and our homes (i.e. little church).  The artwork looks like it could have been drawn by a child and is perfect for engaging the intended preschool audience.  I especially enjoyed the rhyming throughout the text, which gave it a good rhythm and made it a lot of fun to read.  This book was a fast favorite amongst my youngest children and we have enjoyed it many times.  I highly recommend this book and give it an overall rating of 5 stars.

Author / Illustrator information:
Bobby Gilles, Lindsey Blair, and Tessa Janes are members at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky.  Sojourn’s mission is to bring glory to God through lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They believe that the gospel-focused, missional local church is God’s chosen instrument for doing the work of his kingdom on Earth.

Disclaimer:
This book was provided by the kind folks at Christian Focus Publications for review.

Related Resources:

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