Christian Book Reviews

PLUGGED IN by Daniel Strange INTRODUCTION We live in a world of constant information.  How do we know what`s true?  We look for an authority we can rely on.  By and large, most people still seem to have a deep-seated desire to trust people and institutions. For Christians, there`s an added question: how do we know what`s right?  As followers of Jesus, we want to think, speak and act in a way that honours him. We want to "set our minds on things above" (Colossians 3 verse 2) but in reality, most of the time our minds are submerged in a constant stream of stories.  The problem is not that these cultural stories are bad in and of themselves, it`s more that we`re ill-equipped to know quite what to make of them.  How does what I watch on a Saturday night link with what I hear at church on a Sunday morning? If you`ve been a Christian for a while, then chances are that you`ve heard the old cliche that we need to be "in the world but not of the worl...

THE AUTHENTIC SERVANT in Mark`s Gospel by Victor Maxwell I really enjoyed this book so much that I think I am on my third reading!  The author Victor Maxwell has a very simply style in approaching the book of Mark.  It is like sitting in church on Sunday listening to a wonderful sermon!  For that is what each chapter consists of - individual sermons on the words written in the book of Mark!  The author states in his introduction that this book is as a result of studies within the book of Mark shared in ministry at Templemore Hall.  I don`t think I have ever really studied a Gospel writer before in such depth and detail.  I remember years ago when as a new Christian I was grappling with the basics of the Bible and was encouraged to read John`s gospel from the perspective of using it to present the gospel to another by way of evangelism.  I tended to think that Mark was like snippets of Jesus` life, it was fast in its pace but was not co...