The Return

Review: Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life Henri J.M. Nouwen Convergent 2016 Gabrielle Earnshaw spent fifteen years sorting through the correspondence of Henri Nouwen and has edited this first volume released to “commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Henri’s death in 1996.” (x), and since it is she that edited this book, that is the only thing I believe can be discussed since the letters themselves were written as just that---letters, private coorespondence.   Her explanations and insights are found throughout and help the reader understand the circumstances surrounding each set of communications that Nouwen wrote.   Her efforts were aided by a close friend of Nouwen, Sue Mosteller, to whom the book is dedicated. She called the book a “…spiritual autobiography.” (346) I have enjoyed reading this book, and although I have not finished it totally I do recommend this one.   I’ve found collections of letters or published diaries help me unde...

Review: Alive in the Spirit: Experiencing the Presence and Power of God A.W. Tozer Bethany House Publishers 2016 James L. Snyder has compiled and edited several of Tozer’s sermons related to the Holy Spirit that have not been published in the past.   He had been given the rights to do so by the A.W. Tozer estate based on his prior work on Tozer. He chose this selection from more than four hundred audio recordings of the author’s work, a rather daunting task.   The arrangement chosen for this book allows the reader to progress through Tozer’s teachings about the Spirit and His function within the believing community.   Even though the material comes from the the mid 1900’s it is as relevant today as it was then.   Maybe because the author does not venture into areas that are not well supported by the Bible itself.    He does point out the differences between man powered efforts and Spirit empowered efforts that still hold true today as...

Review: The Bad Habits of Jesus: Showing Us the Way to Live Right in a World Gone Wrong Leonard Sweet Tyndale House Publishers 2016 Leonard Sweet can be counted on to give his readers a good read.   I think so anyway.   May not like what he has to say or what he says, but the book will be very readable.   He can pour on the academic stuff from time to time, but he generally leaves that for others to do.   He has a way of sneaking up on the reader with a story or something that brings his point home.   Sometimes the point is sharp enough to make you uncomfortable with yourself. The Bad Habits of Jesus he admits was written in record time, six weeks (ix), and some of it he gathered from a crowd-sourcing (x) event on his Facebook page. A new-fangled way of getting material for his book.   Yes, I do look at prefaces and acknowledgements.   Even introductions. As you might suspect Jesus’ bad habits are determined bad only but some tha...