Review: MacArthur Bible Studies

If you are looking for some new materials to use in a Bible study, you might want to try the MacArthur Bible Studies series.   In the Bible study I participate in, we’ve used 3 or 4 of the MacArthur Bible study guides and we’ve generally been pleased with them.

Each guide focuses on a specific book of the Bible and contains between 10 and 14 lessons.   Each lesson starts out with “warm up” questions which serve to introduce the related theological points.  MacArthur then presents the scripture for the lesson and provides helpful commentary on the language and context of scripture.  After you read the scripture and the commentary, the guide walks through a series of questions which help drive a group discussion.  Many of the questions contain reference scriptures that can be used to help tie the lesson’s scripture to other areas of the Bible.  This helps to clarify and emphasize the particular point of the lesson.

In our group, each individual completes the lesson before we meet.  It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to work through the lesson on your own and about the same about of time for the work through the lesson as a group.

The MacArthur Bible Studies series does an excellent job explaining the scriptures and promoting discussion. The only thing I don’t care for in the MacArthur Bible Studies series is that MacArthur seems to prefer the New King James Version (NJKV) of the scripture, which I find more difficult to read and understand than the New International Version (NIV) or New Living Translation (NLT).  Each study guide costs about $10.

To check them out for yourself, you can look at one of the lessons for James online at Amazon.com.

meet the reviewer: tim schmitt

Tim Schmitt has been attending the Alley since September of 2007, where he serves on the setup team, the A/V team, the communion team.  Tim also organizes the Alley’s two bowling teams.  Originally from Litchfield, MN, Tim moved to the Twin Cities area to attend college at Concordia St. Paul.  Tim is an I/T professional and enjoys bowling and riding his bicycle on the various trails in the Twin Cities area.

Book Review: Counterfeit Gods

Counterfeit Gods:
The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

Timothy Keller
Published by DUTTON, Penguin Group, Inc. New York, 2009.

Click here to purchase from Amazon.com

Pastor Timothy Keller follows his best selling books ‘The Reason for God’ and ‘The Prodigal God’, with ‘Counterfeit Gods’, a discourse about the empty promises of money, sex, and power, and reveals the only hope that matters – a living encounter with God himself.

Pastor Keller shows that each culture has been dominated by its own set of idols (false gods) and associated shrines – whether office towers, spas and gyms, studios, or stadiums – where sacrifices must be made in order to procure the blessings of the good life and ward off disaster. He gives both historical and contemporary examples of the false gods of beauty, power, money, and achievement and shows how none of these satisfy the real condition of the human heart. As I read this book, it was as though I was looking into a mirror – I saw myself in it over and over again.

Pastor Keller posits that these idols cannot simply be removed …. They must be replaced. If we try to uproot them, they will grow back. What is needed is for these idols to be supplanted through a living encounter with God himself. And often times, it takes an experience of crippling weakness for us to finally discover that we had been looking for blessing in all the wrong places. As Pastor Keller put it, “That is why so many of the most God-blessed people limp as they dance for joy.”

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. – I Corinthians 1:25

meet the reviewer: jon schommer

Jon Schommer grew up in Calumetville, Wisconsin (dairy farm country) and currently lives in Woodbury, Minnesota. He has been married for 21 years to Lisa and they have two children; Dave aged 16 and Emily who will turn 14 in January 2010. Jon’s hobbies include gardening and hiking. During the summer, he enjoys golfing once or twice and during the winter he enjoys ice fishing a few times. Jon earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and currently is a professor at the University of Minnesota.

Book Review: The Forgotten God

FORGOTTEN GOD, Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit

Francis Chan, with Danae Yankoski
Published by David C. Cook, Colorado Springs, CO, 2009

Click here to purchase from Amazon.com

Pastor Francis Chan follows his best selling book Crazy Love, with ‘Forgotten God’, a challenge to all followers of Jesus to stop our tragic neglect of the Holy Sprit. Calling the Holy Spirit the ‘Forgotten God’, Pastor Chan posits that we have been holding back from giving ourselves to the Holy Spirit and are keeping parts of our lives that we really care about away from Him.

Pastor Chan asks, “When was the last time you saw the Holy Spirit at work in and our around you?” If this question gives youpause, I encourage you to read this book. Pastor Chan does a fantastic job in describing truths about the Holy Spirit including such things as the Holy Spirit being: a person, God, eternal, holy, having his own mind, in prayer for us, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, willful, and desiring of relationship with us.

In the closing of the book, Pastor Chan provides a beautiful challenge:

No matter where you live and what your days look like, you have the choice each day to depend on yourself, to live safely, and to try to control your life. Or you can live as you were created to live – as a temple of the Holy Spirit of God, as a person dependent on Him, desperate for God the Spirit to show up and make a difference – … that is when people will begin to look not at you but to our Father in heaven and give Him the praise.

meet the reviewer: jon schommer

Jon Schommer grew up in Calumetville, Wisconsin (dairy farm country) and currently lives in Woodbury, Minnesota. He has been married for 21 years to Lisa and they have two children; Dave aged 16 and Emily who will turn 14 in January 2010. Jon’s hobbies include gardening and hiking. During the summer, he enjoys golfing once or twice and during the winter he enjoys ice fishing a few times. Jon earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and currently is a professor at the University of Minnesota.