Thought-provoking article, about prayer: what has God actually promised us?

https://disrn.com/opinion/opinion-bethel-leaders-praying-for-god-to-raise-dead-2-year-old-are-believing-god-for-promises-he-hasnt-made

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-wants-you-to-ask-again

A "robot priest"?!? 
https://pjmedia.com/…/china-introduces-ai-robot-priest-to-…/
This reminds me of Jesus' words: "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him."
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/…

This is a good article. https://www.desiringgod.org/…/the-silent-struggle-of-childl… 
Quote excerpt (from Spurgeon): "our troubles should be steeds upon which we ride to God; rough winds which hurry our bark into the haven of all prayer. Bitterness of spirit may be an index of our need of prayer, and an incentive to that holy exercise."

From Andrew Brunson -
“Let it be clear, I am in prison, not for anything I have done wrong, but because of who I am—a Christian pastor. I desperately miss my wife and children. Yet, I believe this to be true—it is an honor to suffer for Jesus Christ, as many have before me.”

“I know that God’s grace is sustaining me, even when I do not feel that grace, and I know that the prayers of God’s people are surrounding me and giving strength. One of my big fears has been that I will be forgotten in prison. Thank you for not forgetting! …It reminds me that I am not alone, and that I need to stand firm, with my face pointed in God’s direction always.”

Here are some more book reviews.  For earlier book reviews, see here.

Messy Journey, by Lori Wildenberg

This book is a collection of thoughts by a Christian mother, about parenting children who "go astray" from the way they were raised. Her daughter, who currently identifies as lesbian, currently has a good relationship with her mother and also contributed some parts of the book. The book shares anecdotes and discusses the importance of trying to keep the relationship going even when disagreements exist.  It talks about letting go of the urge to 'fix' one's child and surrendering the child to God.  It also has several other stories contributed by parents whose children are going through (or have gone through) various types of rebellion. This was an excellent book overall. I know many Christian parents whose children have wandered away from God, and I wish that all of them could read this book. The book does not provide "solutions" or "answers" per se, but encouragement for parents to know that they are not alone, and encouragement to keep trying, and true stories of parent-child relationships that have been restored. Recommended book.

Creation & Evolution: Compatible or in Conflict? by Jay Seegert

This is an excellent overview of the origins controversies, covering almost all of the related topics in a layman-focused, readable, general-audience fashion, with pictures and analogies. It covers both the scientific and Biblical arguments. It generally uses a presuppositional approach. For its audience, it explains things well (it does not go into deep depth in any area). This would be a great overview book to give someone.

Sing, by Keith and Kristyn Getty

This book is a discussion of congregational singing - its importance, the fact that God commands it, its benefits, how to do it, etc. It has some good points.

From Creation to Salvation: What Jesus and the New Testament authors believed about Genesis, by Lita Cosner

This book is basically a summary of the whole Bible, but with special emphasis on following the teaching about God's creation of the world, Adam/Eve, the Fall, Noah/Flood, etc (from Genesis 1-11) as it is developed and alluded to throughout the rest of the Bible. It has some good insights, but I was hoping for a more direct and powerful argument against the modern disdain for viewing Genesis historically that is often expressed in educated Christian circles. This book is almost closer to the "Stranger on the road to Emmaus" type of book or "One God One Message" type of book, rather than what its subtitle suggests. It is written in commentary style (semi-academic), with occasional sidebars of points about creation. I agree with all of the key doctrinal points it teaches, and most of the subpoints. It was not what I was expecting, but it still might be helpful for some people.

The Great Good Thing, by Andrew Klavan

He tells the story of his life, how he grew up in a Jewish family in New York City, became a writer, dealt with insanity and depression, then gradually over several decades (and therapy) came to a place of more happiness. Then, in the last 10 years, he came to believe in God, and then more specifically in Jesus the Christ. Beautiful book.

Zombie Science, by Jonathan Wells

This is a great book! He follows up on his 2000 book "Icons of Evolution", which pointed out supposed evidences for evolution used in biology textbooks which had already been discredited by scientists. In "Zombie Science", he shows that these are STILL being used 16 years later, and adds several more items. He discusses "vestigial" organs, whale evolution, Darwin's "Tree of Life", antibiotic resistance and cancer, and many other items. I was impressed with this book's balance and even-keeled tone. He never got 'preachy', just kept a smooth narrative running throughout the whole book. He believes in "Intelligent Design", (and an old earth), not creationism. But this book shows the extreme weakness of the evolutionary book. Well recommended!

Wow, this is a powerful short story (only about 1 page long).

https://world.wng.org/2016/11/the_gift_of_some_medics

We will miss seeing the great things God will do, if we stop waiting and trusting Him.

Compare the good example of Joseph who waited (Genesis 37-50, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen+37-41) with the bad example of Saul who stopped waiting (1 Samuel 15, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+sam+15 ).  See also the good example of George Mueller, as he waited on God to provide for his orphans and others. http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/george-muller-did-not-have-the-gift-of-faith-thankfully

(Visit this link for all my book reviews http://tim223.xanga.com/category/book-reviews/ )

Why God Calls Us To Dangerous Places, by Kate McCord
This is a beautiful, thought-provoking book, interwoven with stories from her experiences of 9 years in Afghanistan.  Why do we go (or support those who go)?  Primarily, because God loves those people, and His love begins to transform us so that we begin to love them too.  She has great insights about loss, PTSD, ministry burnout, etc... great insights on how to rest in God and be at peace when all around you comes crashing down, when your friends die (or are murdered), when you are threatened, etc.  When terrorists plot to attack us and do attack us, may our heart be that described in this book.  So far opposite from "let's nuke them all", let our heart instead be, "Who will go to tell them about the love of Jesus?"  See also my previous review of her (excellent) book "In the Land of Blue Burqas".

The 5 Love Languages, by Gary Chapman
You've probably heard of this book, even if you haven't read it.  I finally got around to reading it.  I was afraid that it was going to be oversimplistic... but it was not.  His main point is that people experience 'feeling loved' in very different ways (words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch), and that husbands and wives need to learn how to speak the other's love language.  He explains how he 'discovered' each one by various conversations with his clients (he is a professional counselor).  He includes lots of stories, including about those whose marriages were falling apart.  He is a Christian, but keeps most of the book 'generic' and secular... until the last chapter or so, when he explains about Christ's love.  Excellent, worth reading, overall.

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
This is the true story of how a very liberal and atheistic woman found Christ.  She explains her journey into identifying as a lesbian, and her journey to become an English professor at Syracuse University, teaching Gay and Lesbian Studies.  She happened to become connected with a caring Christian, who took the time to invite her to dialog regularly about matters of faith over dinner with himself and his wife.  Through this friendship, she reevaluated Christ and the Bible, and eventually came to believe in Christ.  This began to massively change her lifestyle, as she chronicles.  Later in her life, she became married, became an adoptive/foster mom, and homeschooled her children.  This is a beautiful, well-written, testimony... well worth reading.

The Verbally Abusive Relationship, by Patricia Evans
This book discusses relationships (primarily husband-wife) where one person (typically, but not always, the husband) verbally abuses the other person.  Most of the book is focused on description (and true stories).  She categories all people as holding to either a "Power-over" mindset or a "Personal power" mindset, which is rather simplistic, but there is some value in the distinction.  (The "Power-over" mindset perfectly describe the consequences of the Fall that the Bible discusses in Genesis 3:16.)  Chapter 11 and 12 have some great, helpful, advice on how to respond to abuse in a way that will hopefully cause the abuser to notice the problem and begin to change.  Basically, 'set limits'/'boundaries' in your own mind before the abuse happens (for example, 'I will not allow him to yell at me', or 'I will not allow him to demean me'), and then if it happens, respond forcefully 'Cut it out', or 'I will not accept that sort of speech', or, walk away.  In cases of physical abuse, of course, flee.  Chapter 13 on recovery is also good.  Convicting for all to read, and helpful if (/when) we have friends going through this type of marital stress, to be able to provide support and counsel.  Worth reading (or at least skimming, chapters 1, 11, 12, 13).  However, sadly, it is completely secular... so unable to discuss the powerful wisdom from Ephesians, etc.  Eggerichs' "Love and Respect" is more helpful in this area, and also even "For Men Only"/"For Women Only" by the Feldhahns (even though the latter mostly restrains itself to secular points).

And the Word Came With Power, by Joanne Shetler and Patricia Purvis
Powerful true story(ies) of how the Bible was translated for the Balangao people in the Philippines.  She shares many stories from her life there.  Especially powerful were all the times when God brought about events that she thought were catastrophic, but actually turned out for the best.  She prayed for the salvation of her host family for a LONG time, and nothing happened.  But eventually, they became believers in Jesus, and became powerful proponents of the gospel.  Also fascinating to hear about the confrontations between the evil spirits and the Spirit of God in the Christians.  Highly recommended book.

The Post-Church Christian: dealing with the generational baggage of our faith, by J. Paul Nyquist and Carson Nyquist
This book very well exposes and airs the reactionary complaints that millenials have against the 'institutionalized', 'tradition-bound', 'organized-religion', 'overprotective', 'cultural-christianity', 'anti-homosexual', 'judgmental', 'overly-political', 'hypocritical', Church (as they consider it).
Unfortunately, the response that J.Paul Nyquist tries to give to his son is rather weak.  He basically says 'try to be understanding to us (the older Christians), give us the benefit of the doubt, cut us some slack, understand our historical context'.  But our response should be to go back to Jesus, that iconoclastic, 'have you never read the scriptures' Man.
Typical paragraph from the book: "Thirty years ago, the American evangelical church member would never dream of being caught in a bar. Today, churches are being planted there. Amid the social environment found in pubs, we see opportunities to express the hope of Christ to those who enjoy a pint as they talk about life."
Their main takeaway points: don't give up on the church.  Increase authenticity, yes, sure, fine.  Remove excessive linkages between "God and country", sure.  Remove unbiblical legalism, yes by all means.  But don't throw out the Church - it has an important God-given function.   With this point, I agree.

You and Me Forever, by Francis and Lisa Chan
The Chans discuss marriage in this book, but first, they discuss putting Jesus at the center and top priority of one's life.  That is their main point... to stop focusing so much on marriage or singleness, and focus more on the kingdom of God in whatever station of life.  Since they are themselves married, it comes across as slightly tone-deaf to the struggles singles have, however, their bracing 'focus on Jesus'/'put His kingdom first' message is important and needed and overall Biblical.  They make much of Paul's instructions in 1 Cor. 7, and other passages.  They also generally live out what they preach, enhancing their message's impact.  Good book, a little strident at times, but worth reading and pondering.

Seven Marks of a New Testament Church, by David Alan Black
Excellent short book (only 50 pages).  He talks about these "7 marks"- Evangelistic preaching, Christian baptism, apostolic teaching, genuine relationships, Christ-centered gatherings, fervent prayer, sacrificial living, based on Acts 2.

Tactics, by Gregory Koukl
Excellent book.  When people hear of 'tactics' in the context of apologetics, most millenials are turned off because they assume it's about manipulation and argumentation, which they want to avoid.  Instead, Koukl presents ways of using questions to turn around conversations that start out with someone asking you a hostile question related to your faith, so that you can expose the deeper beliefs underlying the question, and move into a respectful, healthy, dialog.  This book is worth reading over and over, and practicing its contents, not for the purpose of manipulation, but for the sake of truly loving our neighbors, and helping them find out the awesome truth about Jesus.

From Heaven He Came and Sought Her
This book is a collection of essays about Particular Atonement ("Limited Atonement").  It thoroughly covers the historical views of the Church in the past centuries, and then gets into the Scriptural/theological discussion.  It's a tough, slow, closely-reasoned read, but worth slogging through.

The Genesis Account, by Jonathan Safarti
This is a scientific and theological commentary on Genesis 1-11.  It is a very thorough, even, solid, well-documented, well-reasoned, and objective commentary.  As a reference book, it's not for light reading (some of Sarfati's other books like "Refuting Evolution" or "Refuting Compromise" are easier to read), but it's well worth slowly reading.  It covers all the major scientific evidences for/against various age theories of the earth and evolution, and all the current and past hermeneutical interpretations of Genesis 1-11.  Excellent.

Cold Case Christianity, A Homicide Detective Investigates The Claims of the Gospels, by J. Warner Wallace
This is an awesome book.  It focuses on whether the gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) about Jesus are accurate or not.  The author was an atheist until his thirties, and a homicide detective who specialized in solving cold cases (unsolved crimes from decades past).  When he began to investigate the gospel accounts, he realized that they have all the marks of true eyewitness accounts.  This book covers the same historical facts as many other apologetics books (Josh McDowell, etc), but is extremely well-written, and with a fresh perspective.

Debating Darwin's Doubt, edited by David Klinghoffer
This book is basically a collection of online articles written as back-and-forth debate followup to Steven Meyer's "Darwin's Doubt".  It discusses the major objections of all the critics, and offers rebuttal.  It is a little hard to read, and a little repetitive, but overall a good, very solid and thorough, rebuttal of the critics' arguments and confirmation that Meyer's basic point was correct: the sudden appearance of Cambrian animals in the fossil layer cannot be explained through Darwinian/neoDarwinian evolution, nor through any other non-intelligent materialistic causes.  An Intelligent Designer is the proper inference to the Cambrian fossil record.

Here are some good articles about singleness, dating, romance, etc.  I loosely categorized them below.  I also listed some of my own articles in the mix - the ones listed from xanga.com.   I hope these are helpful and a blessing to you.  I am not an expert, but one thing I know - Jesus Christ is worth everything.

Foundational reminders about eternity, and the theological significance of our singleness

• http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/for-single-men-and-women-and-the-rest-of-us  - great reminder about eternity.
• http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/sex-and-the-single-person  - from John Piper, great practical points at the end of this link (though with caveat from me on #8)
• http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/20-quotes-on-loneliness  - good quotes from Paul Matthies on loneliness and singleness, with testimony
• My articles: http://tim223.xanga.com/2011/10/17/true-love-sex-purity-and-jesus-christ/  and http://tim223.xanga.com/2010/06/24/700/  (marriage is momentary)  and http://tim223.xanga.com/2009/02/14/625/  (singleness will not be forever)

 Articles exhorting to use the current single life to its fullest

• http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/love-the-single-chapter-of-your-life  - use this "single chapter" as a gift, to do what ministries are too difficult for marrieds/families to do and to do what we ourselves may be unable to do in the future
• http://www.boundless.org/adulthood/2011/dont-waste-your-disappointment - from Elizabeth Adams
• http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/nine-lies-in-the-not-yet-married-life  - reminders to focus on developing character now, not then.
• http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/single-satisfied-and-sent-mission-for-the-not-yet-married
• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thoughtlife/2014/04/david-platt-dont-squander-your-singleness/

More 'testimonial'-type articles

• http://www.worldmag.com/2014/12/wrestling_with_god  - testimony written by Sophia Lee in Los Angeles, well said.
• http://cbmw.org/uncategorized/the-god-who-knows-the-end-of-your-singleness/  - good testimony by a 37-year old single.
• http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-single-man-s-journey-to-sexual-happiness  - Idolatry vs satisfaction in Jesus.  Easy to say, completely true, hard to live.
• Mosab Hassan Yosef, talking about his life as a new Christian in Los Angeles, in the final few minutes of The Green Prince documentary
• My articles: http://tim223.xanga.com/2007/10/14/763/  - a great quote from Ann Kiemel Anderson , http://tim223.xanga.com/2008/11/14/634/  - "thy Jesus can repay from His own fullness all He takes away" , http://tim223.xanga.com/2008/06/20/726/  - "Love and Respect" - for singles? , http://tim223.xanga.com/2008/04/22/735/  - "Affections of the heart cannot simply be removed, they must be replaced."   "God's School of Maturity" – http://tim223.xanga.com/2008/02/04/742/ and http://tim223.xanga.com/2008/02/16/741/ and  http://tim223.xanga.com/2007/10/21/760/ and http://tim223.xanga.com/2008/10/27/638/ and http://tim223.xanga.com/2007/09/22/768/ and http://tim223.xanga.com/2009/02/17/623/

Practical/how-to articles regarding dating/courtship/living-amidst-peer-pressure-as-a-single/etc

• This article has a great mixture of all of the above, including the theological foundations: http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/10-questions-on-dating-with-matt-chandler
• http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationships/things-its-ok-feel-when-youre-single   - great empathy, written by Paul Maxwell, for those of us who receive much advice... he also well describes the distrust and disdain we singles sometimes receive from others.
• http://www.thomasumstattd.com/2014/08/courtship-fundamentally-flawed/  and http://www.thomasumstattd.com/2014/08/courtship-fundamentally-flawed-qa/  - Thomas Umstattd's infamous and very thought-provoking posts from August 2014, which he is now turning into a book “Courtship in Crisis”, available June 2015... it's mostly about the cons of courtship and the pros of the older methods of dating, so it's more focused on "methods" than on "fundamental underlying principles and rationales."  But he describes the pros and cons of courtship very vividly.
• A set of excellent articles by Elisabeth Adams about singleness: http://www.boundless.org/adulthood/2013/odd-man-out  and  http://www.boundless.org/relationships/2012/whats-a-guy-to-do   and http://www.boundless.org/adulthood/2015/when-i-fear-the-future
• http://goodguyswag.com/how-to-pray-for-your-future-wife/
• https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-8-practical-advice-singles-1-corinthians-7
• http://www.thomasumstattd.com/2015/02/kissing-sex-jesus-flavored-bubblegum/ a more recent post by Thomas Umstattd, about the gospel, purity, sex, etc.
• http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/when-the-not-yet-married-meet-dating-to-display-jesus  - some tips on dating from a single man - somewhat oversimplified, but might be helpful.
• Set of 3 articles on dating in USA, from World Magazine: http://www.worldmag.com/2011/05/christian_boy_meets_christian_girl   http://www.worldmag.com/2011/05/a_man_s_world   http://www.worldmag.com/2011/05/refocused
• My articles:  http://tim223.xanga.com/2009/10/25/555/  - "my thoughts about relationships with girls" AND "tactics I've found helpful" , http://tim223.xanga.com/2009/04/20/things-i-learned-from-my-first-and-only-romantic-relationship/ , http://tim223.xanga.com/2007/07/06/788/  - links about courtship, http://tim223.xanga.com/2010/06/08/702/  - this one is more about church life than about dating, but slightly relevant