Reviews 2015: The Books I Read In 2015

I have not been an ardent book-reader for a long time. (Laziness, lack of interest and the "get-it-now"-culture got the best of me, I think). But because I made up my mind somewhere in the first quarter of this year to read a book or two, lemme make a review of the books I read. (They are not many, and I think I am okay with this.)

Also, considering that I am a leader, and in many capacities I am expected to have acquired a certain knowledge on a specific subject, you will realize that the type of books I read are more of doctrinal, educational and about Christian living. I read fiction but in small installments (especially just for my writing purposes.)

To favor all of us who may be interested in these books, here is an awesome (yes, awesome because I have been using it since I had my first Android phone) ebook reader for Android which you may download for reading all ebook file extensions (epub. mobi, pdf, comic format e.t.c.) >> Moon+ Reader Pro (eBook & PDF Reader) v3.4.apk << and here is a simple and straight forward ebook reader for Windows >> Icecream Ebook Reader for Windows (32 & 64-bit) (please ignore the "file infected with virus" warning because Google Drive detects all Windows executable files as if they are infected) <<. There is also a download link to every book reviewed below.

BOOKS I READ IN 2015

1. Love Wins by Rob Bell 

Download Love Wins by Rob Bell here (epub).

Love Wins is a book for people who have been hurt by Christians and who have formed opinions about Jesus based on those hurts, rather than on a Savior who loves them unconditionally and pursues them relentlessly. It’s a book about trying to correct the wrong stories Christians and non-Christians have heard about hell, judgment and God that have made them unable to love Him. In the moving first few chapters, Bell wonders how someone who has been hurt, horrifically abused or exploited by
people claiming to be Christians can ever have a right view of Jesus.

Bell tries to answer a number of both theological and doctrinal questions as he writes this book, while trying to show that love wins. Many disagree with him, but all I can say is that the book was an eye-opener to me and it made me see something bigger and beyond what I know of God's love...

Questions;
(a) Does a loving God really send people to hell for all eternity?
(b) But what about hell? Is hell a future reality or a present one? Is it an earthly reality or one that exists elsewhere?
And so forth and so on...

2. StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Download StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath here (pdf). 

The book starts with a cool idea: instead of spending time trying to get better at things you have no talent for, why not work at being great at things you have a natural affinity for? Each of us has things they tend to be good at (talents), and things they tend to not be good at (let's call them handicaps). Why should we spend time and energy overcoming our handicaps, at the expense of our talents? At most, we'll be average at them for a lot of effort. Instead, we should spend our efforts in line with our talents and become really great at them.

The book outlines 34 themes, or areas of strength that Gallup has identified after looking at millions of profiles. It also gives you access to an online assessment that will magically tell you your top five strengths. Each theme has a nice description that makes you warm and fuzzy inside. Each also has activities to help you develop it. It's kinda like astrology, really: the descriptions are so fuzzy and use such powerful words that no matter which one you happen to read, you'll find that it matches you at some level and will sound like something you'd want to get better at. Luckily, there's the online assessment to make sure you only bother with five of them so you don't get too confused.

(Review by Jean Tessier, GoodReads.com) 

3. Apologetics In Conversation by Vincent Cheung
Download Apologetics In Conversation by Vincent Cheung here (epub).

I have become very much interested in the defence of the Christian faith especially in a volatile world (like the one we live in today) that is so much influenced by modern philosophies and subcultures. 

The field of Christian apologetics is most neglected and left out in our churches because everyone thinks "the thinker/philosopher should just believe, why should we contextualize the Gospel to reach him or her?"

But to oppose such a notion, Ravi Zacharias (a renown Christian apologist) says apologetics (the branch of theology that is concerned with the defense of Christian doctrines) is important to every Christian because: (i) the Bible itself is opposed to anti-intellectualism (ii) apologetics is a form of spiritual warfare (iii) all Christians have been instructed to be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks for the reason for the hope that is within them. (1 Peter 3:15).

That having been said, Cheung summarises the way to engage non-Christians through apologetics in four steps;

(a) Affirm the inevitable 

(b) Attack the enemy 

(c) Arrange the clash

(d) Announce the outcome

4. Killjoys: The Seven Deadly Sins by John Piper
Download Killjoys: The Seven Deadly Sins by John Piper here (epub).

This book has been authored by a number of theologians from the Christian organization DesiringGod.org: Johnathon Bowers, Ryan Griffith, David Mathis, Jason Meyer, Jonathan Panel, John Piper, Tony Reinke, Joe Rigney and Marshall Segal. They are all either pastors, professors at Bethlehem College and Seminary or writers at DesiringGod.org.

We get introduced into the book by a story of an adulterous wife who walks out on her children and her very faithful and loving husband to go and have fun with her lovers. She has been walking out often but this time around they seem really promising and she walks out for good leaving her husband to soak in the pain of abandonment, adultery and serial deception. The wife has spent and overspent the family budget to please another illicit, irrational and imaginary love.

However after a couple of years the wife comes into her senses and remembers her husband (couldn’t be said better than in Hosea 2:5-7). On a hot afternoon as the husband is walking down a local park and sees an exhausted, disheveled and desperate woman squeezing every last drop out of a public drinking fountain, and recognizes his one and only wife! The husband takes her back, and re-assures her of His love (Hosea 2:19-20).

We all are that unfaithful wife, and God, through Christ Jesus reclaimed us back to Himself as His bride (Hosea 2:14-23). The battle of sin continues and we as the wife are constantly caught up in affairs with Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony and Lust. The seven form a brothel of mistresses which we all at an unfamiliar or familiar time have met. The book leads us to examine each of the ‘mistresses’ looking at the effects and how Christ helps us overcome each. 

5. Who Moved My Cheese? by Kenneth Blanchard 

Download Who Moved My Cheese? by Kenneth Blanchard here (pdf)
This was a tiny 32 page book recommended to our church youth group by our Youth Patron. The book is majorly on how to adapt to change in any area of our lives. You could read it in 2 hours or so if you are the "read-to-finish" type. 

The main point of the book is found on page 22:
"Then Haw (a character in the book) used his wonderful brain to do what littlepeople do better than mice. He reflected on the mistakes he had made in the past and used them to plan for his future. He knew that you could learn to deal with change. You could be more aware of the need to keep things simple, be flexible, and move quickly. You did not need to overcomplicate matters or confuse yourself with fearful beliefs. You could notice when the little changes began so that you would be better prepared for the bigchange that might be coming.
He knew he needed to adapt faster, for if you do not adapt in time, you might as well not adapt at all. He had to admit that the biggest inhibitor to change lies within yourself, and that nothing gets better until you change..."

The one thing I personally hated about the book was that it is more of a self-help book that either overlooks, underrates or refuses to mention the influence of our spirituality and relationship with God on our acclimatization to change.

6. The Four Loves by C S Lewis
Download The Four Loves by C S Lewis here (epub) 

In his introduction, Lewis says he only thought that there existed two kinds of love: Gift-love (like that of a father to a child) and Need-love (born out of our need for company, affection and acceptance).
Then he says the following;
(a) I still think that if all we mean by our love is a craving to be loved, we are in a very deplorable state.
(b) Hell is the only place outside of Heaven where we can be safe from the dangers of love.
(c) Every human love, at its height, has a tendency to claim for itself a divine authority. (Thus wanting so much to acquire "god" status).
(d) He talks about pleasure being either Need-pleasures (like when one thirsts for water) or Pleasures of Appreciation (when one smells great delicious food). After this, he concludes that there then exists three kinds of love: Need-love, Gift-love and Appreciative love.
(e) He mentions the unfulfilling satisfaction found in the love of nature and of one's country...

In The Four Loves, a guide to human and divine representations of love, C S Lewis' writing feels very Christian, very British, very scholarly, and very masculine, because he was a Christian, an Englishman, and an Oxford professor who spent most of his life surrounded by all-male society. As I'm a believer myself, all that he says in The Four Loves strikes me as exceptionally helpful and spot-on, but I think that almost any type of reader could find beauty and benefit in its pages.

The first distinction he makes between types of love, as mentioned above, is a very basic observation that Gift-love and Need-love are two very different impulses. He explains it nicely here: “The typical example of Gift-love would be that love which moves a man to work and plan and save for the future well-being of his family which he will die without sharing or seeing; of the second [Need-love], that which sends a lonely or frightened child to his mother's arms” (pg 1). He notes that although human love most resembles divine love (the kind shown by God to his creation) when it is giving, this doesn't mean that Need-love is bad or always purely selfish. Is it wrong for a child to need their parents? Is it wrong for teens and adults to seek out the companionship of our friends because we prefer not to be alone? Of course not. In fact, Lewis says that since people truly do need other people, it's a bad thing if we don't exhibit any signs of needing others, “just as lack of appetite is a bad medical symptom because men really do need food” (pg 3).

From here onward, the book is divided into four sections - Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity.

That's all for this year, people.

Let's do this again next year.

...and here's to wishing you a Happy New year 2016!!

Bonface Morris.