Recap (July 25-31)

On bekahcubed

Book Reviews:

  • Inside “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” by Bell, Pyykkonen, and Washington
    Rating: *****
    Category: Literature Study-Guide/Read-along
    Synopsis: An easy-to-understand yet in-depth look at the literary and historical allusions found in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
    Recommendation: This book is a definite keeper. Find it, buy it, peruse it, lend it to your older children, and find a way to share the information found within with your younger children. This is a fantastic resource.
    Read the full review
  • Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? edited by Wayne Grudem
    Rating: *****
    Category: Theology
    Synopsis: Four authors hash out a theology of the miraculous gifts using a written debate-style format.
    Recommendation: Possibly one of the most useful tools to those who are interested in thinking through a theology of the charismata.
    Read the full review
  • Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
    Rating: **
    Category: Current Affairs (or so the back of the book claims!)
    Synopsis: An atheist rants against Christianity.
    Recommendation: Every American evangelical should read this (despite the fact that the quality of the book really is only worth a two star rating.) It’s an object lesson in the impact of politicizing faith on the Christian witness.
    Read the full review
  • Pretty Little. Potholders (Craft Book)
    Rating: *****
    Category: Craft/Sewing
    Synopsis: Directions for over two dozen potholder designs
    Recommendation: Simple instructions, beautiful photos, and low-cost, quick-make, still-cute designs. This book is a winner.
    Read the full review

On the web

Books for the TBR list:

  • Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King
    Maybe I’m a nerd, but this history of the building of Brunelleschi’s dome in the Middle Ages intrigues me. I enjoy history and cultural stuff and oddities and Italy–and Susan says this book, despite its “boring potential” is actually quite interesting.

Thought-provoking posts:

  • From Richard Baxter, advice on evaluating books, including four questions to ask yourself about a book:

    1. Could I spend this time no better?
    2. Are there better books that would edify me more?
    3. Are the lovers of such a book as this the greatest lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life?
    4. Does this book increase my love to the Word of God, kill my sin, and prepare me for the life to come?

  • Tony Woodlief writes of self forgetting love:

    It strikes me that there’s an important difference between “self-forgetting love” and “dying to self” that may help people who, like me, struggle with the latter. The difference, of course, is the elimination of self from the equation.

    When I—selfish, self-absorbed man that I am—take on the task of “dying to self,” I often do it like a self-celebrating martyr. In other words, I don’t really die to self; instead I walk around with the proud notion that I am being a Saintly Husband (for a few fleeting moments), or the self-pitying sense that I am on the losing side of this transaction (“What has she done for me lately, while I’m engaging in all this selflessness???”).

    But to be dead to self is to, well, forget oneself. The dead aren’t self-aware, after all.

  • A great article on homeschooling, a specifically the idea of the perfect homeschool program:

    Hopefully we don’t have to make those either/or choices. But given limited time, energy, and financial resources, sometimes we do. We have to choose what to keep, choose what to focus on, choose what to let go. Sometimes that means letting go of the homeschool fairy tale in order to keep hold of the resident homeschoolers’ hearts.

    I think this can be applied to homeschooling in general. I think its worthwhile, every so often, for every homeschooling parent to evaluate: “Am I doing this because this is the right choice for our family or am I doing this because I’m in love with the idea of homeschooling?” While homeschooling is wonderful (I personally am a fan), it is not an end-all-be-all. Let’s keep first things first. Let’s try to do what’s best for our children, rather than merely relying on our pet philosophies or dreams of “how it should be done.”

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