The Greater Heritage

In this episode of The Greater Heritage podcast we present a Kevin DeYoung book review of Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem. The book is published by Crossway.

Kevin DeYoung, PhD, is the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, and associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte. He and his wife, Trisha, have nine children.

Are you overworked, overextended, overwhelmed, unable to say no to people or just plain busy all the time? Then this book is for you.

Crazy Busy is a much needed panacea for individuals struggling with busyness. Kevin's narrative looks beyond the superficial and forces us to look in the mirror at the heart problems behind our tendency to want to do everything.

The book also has insightful chapters on parenting, technology, ministry, and setting priorities and boundaries.

Highly recommended. Its quick, concise, easy to read and filled with practical tips about overcoming the root causes of our preoccupation with being busy. Its a book we can all benefit from.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this review are solely those of the reviewer. They do not represent any endorsement from the publisher or retailer. Image © Copyright 2021 Crossway.

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
-Acts 17:24-25 (KJV)

In this episode of The Greater Heritage podcast we study reasons why Christians enjoy God’s presence and feel at peace when surrounded by his creation.

Paul's sermon in Athens on Mars Hill teaches us why God's presence in creation brings peace to the Christian.

First, God is uncontainable - he is everywhere. God cannot be confined to a specific place, nor do we have to go to certain locations to be with him.

God is always with us and that's comforting.

Second, even in a world tinged and scarred with sin, God is still Lord of heaven and earth.

He still protects, upholds and cares for us by giving us a home and all things in a universe intelligently designed by him.

Moreover and thirdly, God is Lord of heaven and earth and gives everyone life and breath. Human life is a precious gift from God.

Lastly, God does not need our worship. Instead, he wants us to give him our adoration out of our love for him and he wants to love us in return.

The next time you spend time with God in nature, bask in the glory of his love for you.

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In this episode of The Greater Heritage podcast we review the Francis Schaeffer TV series How Should We Then Live? available at Vision Video and Amazon Prime.

Francis A. Schaeffer was one evangelical Christianity’s foremost philosophers and theologians of the 20th century.

He was also a committed apologist for the Christian faith, and frequent author.

In 1955, he and his wife Edith establish the L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland as a place for people to ask honest questions about life and Christianity.

The organization is still around today, as are Schaeffer’s over 20 books.

In 1977, Schaeffer broke into the world of television with the series How Should We Then Live?

He developed the series as a response to Kenneth Clark’s 1969 art and world history series Civilisation.

However, while exceptional in its own right, Civilisation’s view of world history was entirely humanistic.

So, Schaeffer set out to do a series that got to heart of the meaning of history, namely that it is first and foremost God’s story.

Across the series’ 10 episodes, he takes viewers on a journey through the Roman era, Middle Ages and Renaissance, and the age of non-reason, until finally stopping in the contemporary world.

The primary thesis for the show, is that God is the only source of absolutes.

He then explains, in a clear and profound manner throughout the show, how mankind is inherently rebellious against God.

Nevertheless, the creator God is personal, infinite and has revealed Himself through the Bible and creation.

Therefore, when man follows God and starts with Him as the source of meaning and purpose he finds peace, salvation, strength, meaning, law, order and answers to his deepest questions and needs.

However, when man follows himself, and starts from within to find meaning and purpose, instead of by starting with God, it only leads him to apathy, and despair.

It is within this tension that history has found itself since the fall in the Garden of Eden.

How Should We Then Live? is nothing short of spectacular.

In the end, Schaeffer demonstrates how man’s designs for life are nothing more than circles in the sand.

One decade the rules are represented by one man-made circle, then in another man crosses that circle out and forms a new one.

History, without God, is a never ending series of futile attempts for man to be his own measure, until finally the ocean of God’s return washes it all away.

Francis A. Schaeffer was one of the leading Christian thinkers of the 20th century, and How Should We Then Live? is just as sound, profound and stirring as the man himself.

Highest recommendation!

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this review are solely those of the reviewer. They do not represent any endorsement.

Proverbs 4:14-19 (KJV)
Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

In this podcast episode we study Proverbs 4:14-19, which teaches us to avoid the path of wickedness, and instead choose the path of the just and righteous.

Specifically, we then look at the path of the just, and learn that when we live to follow Jesus our Christian lives gets better and better spiritually as we are made more like him and get ever closer to being with him and like him in eternity.

It’s not that our lives get necessarily better physically or materially, none of that is promised in scripture. However, when we commit to Christ and allow him to work and lead, our lives will get better spiritually.

Christians are promised that no matter what befalls them, no matter what happens, he will continue and finish what he started in us (Phil. 1:6).

We’re chosen to be and are being conformed to him, and changed into his image (Rom. 8:29, 2 Cor. 3:18). That’s what he does for us on the path of the righteous.

May each of us follow the path of the righteous closely and cling to Jesus, and along way may we bring others into God’s family of light, calling them out of the darkness just as we were once called out to live in God's marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).

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Verses mentioned in this episode: Prov. 4:14-19, Ps. 119:105, Jn. 8:12, Matt. 5:14, 1 Jn. 1:7, Jas. 1:17, Matt. 7:13, Jn. 3:19-20, Eph. 2:2-4, Heb. 10:20, Rom. 8:29, 2 Cor. 3:18, Phil. 1:6, Rom. 11:36, Rev. 22:5, 1 Jn. 3:2, Ps. 27:1, 1 Pet. 2:9, 1 Jn. 2:11, Dan. 12:3.

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In this episode of The Greater Heritage podcast we present a Rhett Dodson book review of With A Mighty Triumph!: Christ’s Resurrection and Ours. The book is published by Banner of Truth.

Rhett P. Dodson is pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Hudson, Ohio. He is the author of Every Promise of Your Word: The Gospel According to Joshua and Marching to Zion: Ancient Psalms for Modern Pilgrims.

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The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the hinge upon which Christianity rests. Without it God’s Word and system mean nothing.

It is vital then that we be taught clearly the important implications of Jesus’s resurrection.

Dodson, in this short but no less rich book, does just that. In it, he mines the treasures of Paul’s resurrection theology given in 1 Corinthians 15.

He teaches readers in a clear and understandable manner the importance of the resurrection while also showing the many errors of rejecting Jesus’s resurrection.

Highlights include discussions on ways to live a “resurrection shaped life,” a wonderfully thorough outlining of what believers resurrected bodies will be like when Jesus returns, and most importantly, reasons for why Jesus’s resurrection is to be the galvanizing force behind our joy and eternal hope.

A great book about an important topic and written by a sound pastor.

Highly recommend, especially as a primer on resurrection theology.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this review are solely those of the reviewer. They do not represent any endorsement from the publisher or retailer. Image © Copyright 2021 Banner of Truth.