Man is held in the thrall of grief. It is an anticipated grief. We see the world perishing. We love, and see we will lose that love.
And we cannot control this. We can try. We can write contracts and pass bylaws but people are sinful, people are fickle. Friends betray us….
Read MoreIn 2025 I finished reading 48 books.
Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, by Megan Basham. Published in 2024, Basham chronicles the efforts of American Evangelical pastors and church influencers leading churches to embrace leftist causes and soften their doctrine. Steeped in money (often) from non-Christian sources, they utilize “toxic empathy” (see the book by the same title, listed below) to transform churches away from Scriptural teaching. Basham carefully details the sad decline of once stalwart evangelical pastors and thinkers.
Two other books stood out for me this year. David P. Scaer’s The Sermon on the Mount: The Church’s First Statement of the Gospel was a reread for me, as supplemental material for a class I’m teaching at church. I also profited from Patrick Henry Reardon’s 2012 book The Jesus We Missed: The Surprising Truth About the Humanity of Christ. Reardon, an Orthodox priest and scholar, is always worth reading.
Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany (St. Augustine)
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Finding the Way to Christ in a Complicated Religious Landscape (Andrew Stephen Damick)
The Late Show (Michael Connelly)
Total Power (Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills)
Changed Into His Likeness: A Biblical Theology of Personal Transformation (J. Gary Millar)
Demons: What the Bible Really Says about the Powers of Darkness (Michael S. Heiser)
The Lutheran Difference: An Explanation and Comparison of Christian Beliefs (Edward A. Englebrecht, ed.)
Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World (N.T. Wright)
Wool (Hugh Howey)
The Bad Weather Friend (Dean Koontz)
The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims (Rebecca McLaughlin)
Two Kinds of Truth (Michael Connelly)
Armored (Mark Greaney)
An Explanation of the History of the Suffering and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Johann Gerhard)
What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves (Sam Allberry)
The Spirit of the Liturgy (Joseph Ratzinger)
The Spirit of the Liturgy (Romano Guardini)
Demonic Foes (Richard Gallagher)
Killing Floor (Lee Child)
Shift (Hugh Howey)
Relentless (Mark Greaney)
Dark Sacred Night (Michael Connelly)
Mike (P.G. Wodehouse)
Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America’s Future (Jean M. Twenge)
Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI (Ethan Mollick)
The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
Three Treatises on the Divine Images (John of Damascus)
Just Keep Buying: Proven ways to save money and build your wealth (Nick Maggiulli)
Deification in Christ: Orthodox Perspectives on the Nature of the Human Person (Panayiotis Nellas)
The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity (Robert Louis Wilken)
The Trial (Franz Kafka)
On Christian Doctrine (Augustine)
Sierra Six (Mark Greaney)
Enemy at the Gates (Kyle Mills (Vince Flynn))
Prelude to Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ (Rosaria Butterfield)
Oath of Loyalty (Kyle Mills)
The Night Fire (Michael Connelly)
Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion (Allie Beth Stuckey)
Fair Warning (Michael Connelly)
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (Anna Lembke)
The Law of Innocence (Michael Connelly)
From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (Arthur C. Brooks)
Code Red (Kyle Mills)
Burner (Mark Greaney)
In his book The Sermon on the Mount: The Church’s First Statement of the Gospel, David P. Scaer draws out the true teaching of Jesus, obscured by textual assertions that accommodated man’s tendency to justify himself: there is no place for anger in the life of a disciple of Jesus.
“One who is angry has taken to himself the prerogative that belongs to God alone. The phrase “without cause” does not belong to the original reading. Even if there is a cause for anger, anger must be put aside among the followers of Jesus. There is no cause for anger. Though anger is the prerogative of God alone, in his work of reconciliation in Jesus he has set aside this anger. This makes the offense of anger even more repugnant. By becoming angry the one who claims to belong to Jesus and to know his mind takes an attitude diametrically opposed to God, who is no longer angry. The refusal to be reconciled is the sign that the person no longer belongs to Jesus and from God’s point of view is no longer a member of the community. Here is where excommunication becomes operative.”
Jeffrey Gibbs’ excellent article “The Myth of Righteous Anger” expands on this and is highly recommended.
Walking briskly through the hospital corridor, my thoughts were interrupted by the man calling out to me. “Father! Thank God you’re here. Right this way.” He told me they’d been waiting for hours for a priest to visit his dying wife. I explained that I’d be happy to visit, but he should know I’m a Lutheran pastor. “Just a minute,” he said, and disappeared into the room. After a hushed conversation, he came back out and said, “Close enough!”
Read MoreWhat happened in Mary’s womb was not a miracle to grab the world’s attention, like some juggler or illusionist. The world-altering event takes place in secret. It happens through God’s Word to one woman, without an audience.
But it is world-altering in the same category as when God first said, “Let there be light.” To God’s fallen creation God Himself enters.
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