Book Reviews

A Christmas Thought, a Consideration for the New Year

December 26, 2018 by Peter Dubbelman 2 Comments

Applying this one key idea to my everyday life helps me develop as a person, causes me to worship God with greater clarity and thankfulness, and allows me to both understand spiritual development and help others mature in Christ. Read More »

Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now

June 9, 2018 by Peter Dubbelman 2 Comments

The title of this book sums up nicely a key theme of Sabbath, which Brueggemann expounds upon in an easily understood manner: “[Sabbath] declares in bodily ways that … we will not be defined by busyness and by acquisitiveness and by the pursuit of more, in either our economics or our personal relationships or anywhere in our lives. Because our life does not consist in commodity.” Read More »

New Creation Life

March 23, 2018 by Peter Dubbelman Leave a Comment

So many Christians have a “form of godliness” but do not experience God’s life-changing reality. Yet the Apostle Paul wrote that the gospel “is the power of God” (Rom 1:16). I believe that by this gospel, God commissions and ethically empowers a person to turn his or her heart affectionately to both God and neighbor. For the Spirit of God creates a new heart in the person who believes in Christ. Read More »

The Way of the Lamb

November 24, 2017 by Peter Dubbelman Leave a Comment

This book’s opening quote, by Eugene Peterson, and closing quotes, by Augustine and others, help tether its consistent line of thought that is held by two opposing questions: Do you seek applause, self-importance, influence, control, and winning—using people in the process? Do you take on the way of the Lamb, find God’s power in weakness, and lay down your life for others? Read More »

Treatise on the Love of God

October 27, 2017 by Peter Dubbelman 2 Comments

“Prying, ambition, anxiety, ignoring our purpose for being in this world: these are the reasons for which we have a thousand times more worries than work and more occupation than profit. These do not represent our true business. They are wasteful activities that we allow to distract us from the love of God.… Necessary employment, according to each person’s vocation, does not hinder divine love. It increases and gilds the work of devotion.… The devout heart loves God no less when it turns from prayer to necessary business. Silence and speech, activity and contemplation, work and rest provide equal opportunity to sing a hymn of love” Read More »