Monday, December 31, 2012

A Layman Looks at the Lamb of God by W. Phillip Keller

book cover
A Layman Looks at the Lamb of God
by W. Phillip Keller


ISBN-13: 9780871233141
Trade Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Released: June 1, 1982

Source: Borrowed from my church library.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Phillip Keller traces the main Bible events which prefigured Christ the Lamb. These six word pictures culminate in the story of Christ Himself in His matchless role as the divine sacrifice for sins.


My Review:
A Layman Looks at the Lamb of God is a study of Old Testament events which point to Christ as the Lamb and the New Testament events that fulfill this role.

The author looked at six examples of foreshadowing Christ as a lamb: Adam and Eve's covering, Cain and Abel's offerings, Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac, the Passover lamb, the scapegoat, and the lamb in Isaiah. Each event was discussed in a separate chapter. The final chapter was a look at Christ fulfilling his role of lamb in the New Testament.

There was very little about shepherding or lambs in this devotional. There was a fair amount of speculation, some of which I'd agree with because it's consistent with the Bible as a whole. However, he based some of his studies on speculation rather than information specifically stated in the Bible. And I'm not even sure where he got some of his speculations from, like some ideas he stated--as if fact--about Nazareth and Jesus' growing up years. While I though the book was useful to make a person think, I'd suggest that people double-check what the Bible actually says after reading it so they can separate speculation from fact.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Monday, December 24, 2012

A Week in the Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington III

book cover
A Week in the Life of Corinth
by Ben Witherington III


ISBN-13: 9780830839629
Trade Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Released: April 2, 2012

Source: Bought from Amazon.com.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Spend an imaginary week in Paul's Corinth as the story of Nicanor winds through street and forum, marketplace and baths, taking us into shop, villa and apartment, where we meet friends new and old. From our observing a dinner in the temple of Aesclepius to Christian worship in the home of Erastos, Paul's dealings with the Corinthians in his letters take on focused relevance and social clarity. Explanatory sidebars crack open windows on features we encounter along the way, offering further background.


My Review:
A Week in the Life of Corinth is partly fiction and partly nonfiction. It read like a documentary show that's primarily made up of fictional reenactments to illustrate the points. The purpose was to educate readers (in an entertaining way) about the social and cultural background to Paul's letters to Corinth so that we can better understand them.

The book contained some nice black-and-white pictures of ruins, diagrams of houses, and archaeological artifacts that illustrated information in the non-fiction sidebars or events in the story. A lot of educational material was worked into the story, but additional information was provided in "sidebars" (which could take up whole pages) that were placed within the story.

The story followed a week in the life of a freed slave, who is caught in some political power-plays, and of Paul, who is facing a trial described in the Bible. The story had plenty of conflict and educational value, but it's a fairly short story and the relationships were only shallowly developed.

I thought that the author did a good job with the educational points that he brought out. The focus was mainly on Roman aspects (rather than Jewish) since the focus was on Corinth. Overall, I'd recommend this book to people who aren't very familiar with cultural background information and who aren't interested in pure nonfiction books on the topic.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Into the Amazon DVD

book cover
Into the Amazon DVD

4 DVD set
Length: 300 minutes
Publisher: Vision Forum Ministries
Released: 2011

Source: Bought through Answers in Genesis.

DVD Description from Publishers Website:
Join Doug Phillips and his team of thirty men on an adventure you will never forget — to the Amazon jungle, high into the Andes Mountains, and to the Great Peruvian Desert — and bring your entire family! Explore piranha-infested rivers and vampire bat caves, discover strange insects and fascinating plant life, fly over the strange Nazca lines, and encounter the remains of pagan civilizations that continue to negatively influence modern cultures. Together your family will discover why the Amazon is one of the most controversial places on earth, and your children will learn the truth in the battle between radical environmentalism and biblical Christianity.


My Review:
Into the Amazon follows a tour group of 30 men as they explore the Amazon, the Inca Stones, Great Peruvian Desert, the Nazca lines, and Machu Picchu. The visual was nicely done overall, but sometimes the audio was difficult to hear due to people in the background making noise or when the sound dropped when those speaking turned their head or moved too fast.

The focus of the series was primarily "biblical dominion versus radial environmentalism." Don't expect a creation science focus, though the speakers do come from a biblical viewpoint.

The first disc contained the episodes: "The Mystery of the Meaning of the Amazon" (15 minutes and 35 seconds) and "The Mystery of the Lost Legacy of Adventure & Dominion--Part One and Two" (22 minutes 34 seconds). This disc was mainly aimed at men. Much of it was Doug Phillips standing in front of a tree giving a lecture on some of the history of the exploration of the Amazon and on what he feels is the biblical view of dominion and adventure. (What he qualifies as dominion and adventure seemed very narrowly defined to me.) It also included the group hiking in the Amazon and not turning back soon enough. They ended up lost in the dark and, after having fun being lost for a while, they finally used their GPS to get home.

The second disc contained the episodes: "The Mystery of the Strange Creatures of the Amazon" (34 minutes) which showed some captive animals up close, then we follow their trips out to find some wild animals. They were successful at finding monkeys and cave bats but not at finding anacondas. In "The Mystery of the Plants of the Amazon" (22 minutes), we're shown a variety of plants and told how they are used medically by the locals. In "The Mystery of the Lost Tribes (21 minutes, 21 seconds), we learn about remote Amazon tribes and about missionary efforts to these tribes. We follow the group as they go to a remote village to offer a medical clinic (though we only briefly see the medical clinic).

The third disc contained the episodes: "The Mystery of the Inca Stones, the Nazca Lines, and the Great Peruvian Desert" (25 minutes 9 seconds) which follows the tour group as they study the Inca Stone collection and discuss them, fly over the Nazca Lines and discuss them, and play in the Great Peruvian Desert and look for whale bones there. "The Mystery of Machu Picchu" (29 minutes 38 seconds) gave a detailed tour of Machu Picchu. While Doug Phillips stated some things as fact that archaeologists don't all agree on, he did a nice job of showing the viewer all over Machu Picchu. This disc was more what I had been expecting of the whole series, and I enjoyed it a lot.

The fourth disc contained some bonus clips of other things they saw (mainly things in the cities they went through) and episode trailers.


If you've watched this movie, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Movie Trailer:


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

And the winner is...

It's time to announce the winner of the  Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop. Including Twitter entries, we had 13 entries. Using a random number generator and numbering the entrants in the order I received them, the winner is:

Saleh.Adams (one of those who posted as "Anonymous")
who won Josh McDowell's One Year Book of Youth Devotions


Congratulations! I'll be contacting you for your address.

For those who didn't win, you can always buy a copy of this book at your favorite bookstore or perhaps at your library.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by Richards & O'Brien

book cover
Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes:
Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible
by E. Randolph Richards
and Brandon J. O'Brien

ISBN-13: 9780830837823
Trade Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: IVP Books
Released: November 5, 2012

Source: Bought through Amazon.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
What was clear to the original readers of Scripture is not always clear to us. Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text.

For example: When Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to "dress modestly," we automatically think in terms of sexual modesty. But most women in that culture would never wear racy clothing. The context suggests that Paul is likely more concerned about economic modesty--that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair and gold jewelry.

Biblical scholars Brandon O'Brien and Randy Richards shed light on the ways that Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. Drawing on their own crosscultural experience in global mission, O'Brien and Richards show how better self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences in language, time and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways.


My Review:
Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes is a book about some cultural differences between the "East" and "West" and how this might help us to better understand the true social dynamics going on in the Bible.

They covered topics such as "bad" words, sexual taboos, how money is viewed, what things are eaten as food, ones view of people from different parts of the world or with different skin color, how Hebrew and Greek don't always easily translate into English, the use of idioms, a focus on efficiency versus focus on the human element, the individual making decisions based first on his own desires versus based on the advice of the extended family or village, honor and shame compared to right versus wrong, views of time, that rules should always apply versus rules are good guidelines but have exceptions, patron and client relationships, what a culture values as a virtue or calls a vice, and applying "Bible promises" outside of the original context.

The authors avoided going through the Bible to identify all the major instances of the idea they were talking about. Instead, they hoped the reader would understand the concept and be able to recognize and apply it as they found it in their Bible reading. I've heard many of these concepts in other books, but none of those books went very in-depth.

In this book, the authors did an awesome job of clarifying some concepts that I'd read about before. For example, they did a great job explaining the patron-client relationship. Occasionally, though, I wasn't sure that the authors' take on a verse was correct, but I also wasn't always sure that I fully understood the idea they were trying to apply. Or I could see how it applied in the examples that they gave, but I didn't feel like I could accurately identify or apply the concept while reading other passages in the Bible. I plan to re-read the book and see if that helps solidify some of these ideas.

Overall, I'm glad I read this book. It did bring out some good points about cultural blind spots. But I think I'd only recommend it to people who are fairly familiar with the whole Bible and have already done some study of the Bible-times cultures. The authors tended to refer to Bible events--from both Old and New Testaments--as if the reader was fully familiar with the story as told in the Bible, and it was also easier to understand the point the authors were making if you could think of some other examples that their point might apply to in the Bible.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

And the winner is...

It's time to announce the winner of the "Christmas Books" Giveaway Hop. Including Twitter entries, we had 19 entries. Using a random number generator and numbering the entrants in the order I received them, the winner is:

Megan Parsons
who won "Christmas Uncut" by Carl Laferton


Congratulations! I'll be contacting you for your address.

For those who didn't win, you can always buy a copy of this book at several online stores.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop

 Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop

As a part of the Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop, I'm holding a giveaway for:


book coverJosh McDowell's One Year Book of Youth Devotions by Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler.
You can read my review.

Aimed directly at the needs and interests of preteens and teens, "The One Year Josh McDowell's Youth Devotions" is a Right From Wrong devotional that helps young people apply the Scriptures in daily decision making. Covering a host of topics that are relevant to today's teens, this devotional encourages teens to think through difficult choices, enabling them to discover why certain choices are right or wrong.


This contest is for USA & Canada residents only.


To enter the giveaway:

1) you can twitter me saying "Hi @ChristFocus. Enter me in the giveaway for JOSH MCDOWELL'S YOUTH DEVOTIONALS."

OR

2) You can leave a comment to this post asking to be entered. (I have comment moderation on to prevent spam comments, so don't worry if your entry comment doesn't appear immediately. It will soon.) Please also leave some way for me to contact you--or follow this blog so you can see the winner announcement. I'd be fun if you also included why you're interested in reading this novel.



This giveaway ends on December 10, 2012 at midnight. The winner will be randomly selected. I'll announce the winner on December 11, 2012 on this blog.

If you entered using twitter, I'll send you a @ or DM telling you of your win and asking where to send the book. If you entered using the blog comments, you'll need to leave your e-mail address or check back to see if you won so you can e-mail me your mailing address. If the winner hasn't responded with a mailing address within four days, I reserve the right to pick a new winner.

I hope everyone has fun with this!


The blogs participating in the Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop:

A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller

book cover
A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23
by W. Phillip Keller


ISBN-13: 9780310274414
Mass Market Paperback:
173 pages
Publisher: Zondervan
Released: April 10, 2007
(first published 1970)

Source: Borrowed from my church library.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Travel the shepherd's path to the green pastures and cool, refreshing waters of Psalm 23. As a shepherd, Phillip Keller shares his insights into the life and character of sheep---and of the Good Shepherd who loves and cares for them. This beloved classic will give new meaning to the ageless Shepherd Psalm, enriching your trust in and love for the Lord who watches closely over you.


My Review:
A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 is a study of Psalm 23 from the perspective of a sheep rancher--one who grew up around tribal shepherds in east Africa.

The author discussed one verse per chapter and worked his way through the entire Psalm. He gave details about the aspect of shepherding that the verse referred to so that the reader could better understand the verse. He made parallels between how sheep (or the shepherd) acts and how we (or God) acts and how this is a lesson for us even in modern life.

I found the information that he gave about shepherding to be very useful in better understanding the various sheep and shepherd references in the Bible. I felt that a few of his parallels between shepherding and the Psalm were a bit of a stretch though they were still interesting in the overall sense of Biblical references. Overall, I'd recommend this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.