I can still remember when someone took the time to show me how the Bible is actually one big story about what God’s doing in the world. Suddenly I saw that the good news of Jesus runs through the Bible like the writing in a stick of rock – both in promise and fulfilment. It blew my mind – and completely changed how comfortable I felt reading certain parts of the Bible. (You know, like deepest darkest Leviticus or 1 & 2 Chronicles, which I have to admit had been getting pretty dusty…)

And that’s what the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible is all about. Its strapline is “Christ in all the Scriptures; Grace for all of life”.

(By the way, if you’ve never come across the idea of a ‘study Bible’ before- and there’s lots of different ones out there – it basically means you’ve got the text of the Bible plus lots of helpful explanatory notes and commentary alongside it – all in one book! And don’t be put-off by the ‘study’: as this particular version’s name reveals, the goal of engaging with God’s word is always us being transformed – so this isn’t dull or dry.)

So when I heard that British book distributor 10ofthose would be offering a fantastic one-off sale on this particular study Bible, the Gospel Transformation Bible, I figured that’s worth sharing.

Depending on whether you bulk-buy, you can get them for as low as £7 (TruTone edition) or £9 (Leather edition). They normally retail for £50 and £70 respectively.

The offer only runs today – 12th September – and is first come first served.

There’s an introduction to every book of the Bible, as well as notes accompanying each passage. Different pastors and writers like Kevin DeYoung, Nancy Guthrie, and Graeme Goldsworthy take time to explain how books of the Bible that we might have previously struggled to understand or to see how they fitted in with Jesus, are now unpacked and put in their context. And it’s not just about explanation, but application too. In fact, these notes are a brilliant model for how the message of the Bible is to shape not just our external actions, but our hearts.

You can see a 60-page free sample to whet your appetite here.

You also get free access to the online edition.

My only bug-bear is that it’s basically only American authors, but – hey – that’s good for our British humility, right…

Check out the offer here – and watch this 2-minute promo below:

Disclaimer: The distributor has sent me a free copy of this book to review, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review.

Despite now being in my seventh-year working for a church and being a trained-up Anglican curate (not to mention the fact that I now rock up at church with a couple of my own kids in tow), the very thought of children’s ministry is still enough to bring me out in a cold sweat!

So I thank God for Alison Mitchell who has written this little gem, a treasure-trove for anyone seeking to get a handle on the nuts and bolts of children’s ministy. Alison is Commissioning Editor at The Good Book Company, with 30 years of involvement in training children’s and youth leaders, as well as being author of numerous children’s books and reams of ‘Sunday school’ kids material! In other words, you’d assume she’d be well placed to write this book – and once you start reading you realise she definitely is. 

Of course, if you’re going to name a book “starting out” in children’s ministry, then it’s pretty important you make sure it’s not too overwhelming. I want a resource that I can hand to (or work through with) a new leader or church apprentice with confidence that it’s not going to scare them off (likewise, for fresh-faced curates!). And yet it also needs to be comprehensive enough to actually be a significant help in teaching, training and equipping people. Starting Out achieves both, making the task and privilege of children’s ministry both imaginable and exciting.

The book is only eight chapters, each one short and sweet, but between them they cover a rich sweep of pretty much everything you’d want introduced. Ranging from the general (‘Why Children’s Ministry?’) to the specific (‘Digging into the Bible’ and ‘Staying safe’), they’re an engaging blend of input, questions & activities, personal examples and prayer points. We recently ran a ‘thank you and refresher afternoon’ for all those involved in the different children’s ministries at our church, and this book was a brilliant resource to draw on in shaping that time.

A few other stand-out aspects that I really appreciated:

• I was really impressed by the way Alison presented a simple ‘toolbox’ for giving leaders confidence to dig into the details of a Bible passage for themselves – and unpack its big idea. I don’t think I’ve seen/read many people doing this quite as simply.
• Some wise words on how to use – and how not to use – published teaching material.
• Alison’s ‘Focus the fun’ element is a really useful reminder that fun is good (i.e. crafts, games, activities), but it doesn’t have to be separate from ‘teaching’ – it can be focused.
• An understanding that different people (and different kids) learn best in different ways.
• Seeing craft as a “secret weapon” – not just a convenient time-filler.
• Helpful to have the subject of discipline is purposefully engaged with throughout, rather than being seen as a stand-alone topic.
• It’s always good to feel that an author is genuinely enthusiastic about what she’s writing about. Alison’s writing oozes conviction and delight.

Maybe sometimes children’s work is seen as a bit secondary, or even worse, simply an exercise in glorified child-minding. Even when we know the ‘theory’ behind its importance, in practice the time we give to preparing (perhaps compared to a sermon, etc) can be rather lacking. But Starting Out gave me fresh joy and heaps of help for the challenge of teaching the next generation about our great and glorious God and what he has done. 

You can pick up Starting Out in Children’s Ministry from The Good Book CompanyThe Good Book Company for less than a fiver – that’s a steal!

Disclaimer: The publisher has sent me a free copy of this book, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review.

Sometimes the impression can be given that Christians think money, sex, and power are inherently bad things. Perhaps it’s given when we have little to say to the Christian in a position of responsibility at work? Perhaps it’s given when sex is never mentioned from the pulpit, except when we’re saying what we’re against? Perhaps… well, maybe we could go on.

But in his new book, Living in the Light, John Piper is out to turn that misunderstanding on its head. In fact, he begins by stating his argument up front:

“God did not concieve and create money, sex, and power simply to be a temptation. … [They] are not detours on the path to God-exalting joy. Along with all the rest of God’s good world, they are the path. With them, we can show the supreme worth of God.”

In other words, money, sex, and power are God-given opportunities to “make God look really good”. When was the last time you thought about what you did with your wallet, your responsibilities, or even your relationships, as having that purpose? But once you think about it, of course it makes sense. How we handle money, sex, and power inevitably reveals what we value. And therefore there’s a way of engaging with them that shows we value God above everything else.

And yet, of course, that potential can be revealing too. In that sense Piper calls them “dangerous opportunities,” because how you treat these three “puts your heart’s treasure on display”:

“[Money, sex, and power] are ways of displaying God’s supreme worth in your life, or they are ways of displaying what you think is the supreme worth of something else.”

Really the book is framed around an extended analogy, with Piper suggesting we’d do well to think about our solar system as a picture of how we’re to relate to money, sex, and power. In and of themselves they’re good things that God has created, and as such we need them to be in their right place within God’s ordering of the world. The sun, the “blazing centre” of our solar system, is God. But the nature of sin is to place other things or desires, even God-given things like money, sex, and power, at the centre of our existence and identity, rather than seeing them as planets orbiting a sun.

If that’s the diagnosis, Piper’s way of putting the solution is that we return “God’s all-satisying glory” to the centre of our solar system. This is to live in the light. Only God’s glory has the gravitational attraction to hold those other things in their right place and orbit. Only God can hold our lives together. Only then do we discover what we were truly made for:

“…money exists so that it will be plain by the way we use it that God is more to be desired than money. Sex exists so that it will be plain that God is more to be desired than sex. And power exists so that it will be plain that admiring and depending on his power is more to be desired than exalting our own… we were created to glorify and thank God – that is, to treasure the glory of God over all things, to be amazed at his glory, to admire his beauty, to enjoy him and all his perfections, to be satisfied in him, and to find a deep, settled contentment in his all-satisying fellowship.”

It’s a powerful picture, but it’s biblically persuasive too. I appreciated how Piper unpacked the ‘exchange’ language of Romans chapter 1, showing how we turn from God’s glory and instead set significant things up as ultimate things in place of God. Of course, this is often because of what these things can do for us. As Piper puts it, they become “altars and incense in the temple of pride”.

But as we have our eyes opened to what Jesus has done in rescuing us, we become captivated by a greater glory – and this transforms us. This is where passages like 2 Corinthians ch3 are key, showing that discipleship involves an internal beholding of how amazing God is, as we’re changed from one degree of glory to the next. Piper then paints for us what this transformation might look like, as each of the planets returns to its proper orbit around our worship of the Son, to make “the whole system sing with joy”.

I found these examples and articulated thought-processes very helpful in considering what this would mean in my life. In particular, I felt I’d never really considered my relationship to power, so that was an eye-opener. A small critique would perhaps to have shifted the weight of the word count from earlier on in the book, and instead developed the latter section on ‘Deployment’ (i.e. application). In particular, I wonder if it would be an even stronger book had it engaged more with poverty and singleness. However, there are always limits and calls to make – so perhaps that’s a counsel of perfection.

For someone looking to press on as a follower of Christ, Living in the Light will be a fullsome and unshrinking read. In essence, it’s a worked example of how to make much of Jesus Christ with all of our lives. If you’ve never read any Piper, it’s a great way to begin. If you’re a JP junkie, you’ll still appreciate how he pushes seeing Christ as supreme into the specifics of our lives. And with its smart hard-back glossy finish and perspective-changing approach, it’s a fab investment. Why not pack it in the suitcase over the summer and spend some decent time mulling it over?

You can also check out the book’s mini-site, where you can read samples, sign-up for a free five-day email devotional, as well as order your own copy.

Disclaimer: The publisher has sent me a free copy of this book, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review.