Calling on the Name of the Lord: A Biblical Theology of Prayer

J. Gary Millar

The Bible frequently says that people prayed without mentioning what they prayed for. Millar, an Irishman who’s now a theology professor in Australia, shows that the prayers recorded in Scripture ask God to fulfill His promises. And thus, even when we don’t know what someone prayed for, that person was likely asking God to do what He’s already committed Himself to doing. That’s how Moses, Jesus, David, and Paul prayed. Millar concludes that Christians, too, ought to fill their prayers with requests for God to fulfill His promises. How could we request anything better than that?

The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Steven Lawson

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was the assistant to King George V’s personal physician, but he left medical practice to preach the gospel, first in his native Wales and then in London. This slim volume is not titled “The Life of” but “The Passionate Preaching of”—and author/preacher Lawson focuses almost exclusively on how Lloyd-Jones preached. Lawson’s chapter titles (“Distinctly Expository,” “Carefully Studied,” “Doctrinally Grounded”) sound like sermon points, but he also emphasizes the importance of passion. The book’s obvious message: Contemporary preachers need to preach the same Word by the same Spirit’s power.

My God and My All: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi

Elizabeth Goudge

As is perhaps inevitable for a biography written by a novelist using meager sources, Goudge’s biography of Francis (1182-1226) contains a lot of maybes. We learn about Francis’ birth, conversion, call to sell all and give to the poor, founding of the Franciscan Order, travels to Egypt and the Holy Land, return to Italy, and struggles over what the Franciscans would be. Goudge carefully draws the line between fact and speculation and scrupulously avoids idealistic hagiography.

Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious

David Dark

Religion is the “tales and traditions our lives embody,” so if we think it’s something only other people have, we delude ourselves. Key question: Is a religion good or bad? Dark says good religion admits that life can’t be compartmentalized and all lives are nuanced and complicated. Good religion pursues meaningful relationships—and warns against distracting ourselves with smartphones (which Dark labels “electric soul molesters”). At heart, Life’s Too Short is a fantastically clever plea for humility, courtesy, and charity. It doesn’t use those words, but it describes those things—and makes them beautiful all over again.

Afterword

The Joy of Poetry by Megan Willome (T.S. Poetry Press, 2016) is a lovely book that’s part memoir and part poetry primer. At the heart of the book is the relationship between Willome and her mother during the final years of her mother’s long struggle with cancer. Willome weaves into the narrative poems—some she wrote and others she came across—that provided comfort and perspective. The book also functions as a gentle introduction to poetry for those intimidated by the genre and an encouragement to make poetry reading a part of daily life.

Risky Faith by Susan Alexander Yates (Loyal Arts Media, 2016) is an excellent book about, as the subtitle says, “becoming brave enough to trust the God who is bigger than your world.” Using personal stories and Scripture, Yates—a pastor’s wife and teacher—offers Scriptural wisdom especially useful to women in the nitty-gritty of life. —Susan Olasky