Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

Andrew David Naselli & J.D. Crowley

Andy Naselli and J.D. Crowley set out to show from Scripture the God-designed role of the conscience—“what you believe is right and wrong.” They discuss how it works, the care it needs, and its subjectivity and relation to culture. A look at the Bible passages on conscience shows two prominent principles: God is the only Lord of conscience and you should always obey conscience. Since the conscience is fallible, they offer a whole chapter on discerning its reliability and calibrating it according to God’s revelation in the Scriptures. They also provide wisdom on relating to fellow Christians when consciences disagree.

A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness

John Piper

John Piper is a man who treasures God through the Word of God. Here he shows how he came to have such confidence in the Bible. He writes, “The simplest preliterate person and the most educated scholar come to a saving knowledge of the truth of Scripture in the same way: by a sight of its glory.” The book then describes—with help from Jonathan Edwards and a focus on 2 Corinthians 4:4–6—how the Bible exposes us to the glory of God and gives us complete confidence that it is, indeed, God’s own word.

J.C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone

Iain H. Murray

Anglican bishop J.C. Ryle was a 19th-century stalwart defender of the Christian faith. He came from an affluent, nominally Christian family. Illness drove him to the Bible, which exposed to him the perilous state of his soul. He became a gifted preacher, counselor, and writer, often forced to take unpopular stands for truth. This difficulty, combined with the loss of two wives, the death of a child, and the growing apostasy of a son, left him a man marked deeply by suffering.

Zeal Without Burnout: Seven Keys to a Lifelong Ministry of Sustainable Sacrifice

Christopher Ash

Christopher Ash believes we can have sustainable, nonco mplacent zeal. He writes from experience, having twice let his zeal drive him to the brink of a breakdown. He tells young people they are preparing “for a marathon, not a short, energetic sprint … a lifetime of sustainable sacrifice, rather than an energetic but brief ministry that quickly fades in exhaustion.” Keys include sleep, Sabbaths, friends, and food—the inward renewal of spiritual food. While the focus of this book may be on pastoral ministry, it is for those involved in any type of Christian service.

Afterword

In Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon (Knopf, 2016), Bronwen Dickey investigates America’s love/hate relationship with the pit bull to show how a once-beloved breed became despised. She gives the reader a street-level view of pit bull breeders, trainers, rescuers, and haters. She talks to researchers who analyze dog bite reports, doggy DNA, and breed bans. This fascinating book makes a sociological argument: that our dislike of pit bulls reflects a discomfort with the urban black culture now associated with them.

In Running on Red Dog Road: And Other Perils of an Appalachian Childhood (Zondervan, 2016), Drema Hall Berkheimer portrays life in a 1940s West Virginia coal mining town where she lived with her grandparents. She captures the everyday details of life: what folks ate and how they talked. She also captures how her grandparents’ Pentecostal Holiness religion led them to generosity toward hobos and other colorful characters who wandered through. Running captures well a fast-disappearing way of life. —Susan Olasky