"Learning Our Names" (Sabrina S. Chan, Linson Daniel, E. David de Leon, and La Thao)

TITLE: Learning Our Names: Asian American Christians on Identity, Relationships, and Vocation
AUTHOR: Sabrina S. Chan, Linson Daniel, E. David de Leon, and La Thao
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2022, (240 pages).
 

"Chinese names are harder to remember. Take an English name." This is a common comment made by Westerners when they try to pronounce a Chinese name. Often, they mispronounce. This makes the title of the book quite identifiable among many Asians in Western society. For Asians who immigrated to the West, it might be a culture shock at most or an inconvenience at least. For those who grew up as natively, it is a way of life. In a book written by Asian Americans for the larger Christian public, we read several stories depicting the constant struggles to find acceptance and recognition in a largely non-Asian culture. The stories are subdivided into three categories:

1. Learning our Stories;
2. Learning our Relationships;
3. Learning our Vocations.

In "Learning Our Stories," each author shares how racialization has impacted them. David de Leon shares his Pilipino upbringing by sharing the history of the Philippines, and how the country was influenced by Spanish powers and American colonialism. He tells us that names not only point to the past but also show us the hope that parents have for the next generation. Sabrina Chan shares her Hong Kong background and how she got her English name through American movies. Linson Daniel's parents hail from India while he was born in Texas, making him a full American citizen both nationality-wise as well as culture-wise. La Thao laments about the cultural confusion happening even within her own family. Her parents' Hmong upbringing over parenting matters conflicts with the Western parenting advocated by American sitcoms and popular cultures. One of the major emotional conflicts has got to do with the different expressions of love. 

"Holy Disruption" (Tracy S. Daub)

TITLE: Holy Disruption: Discovering Advent in the Gospel of Mark
AUTHOR: Tracy S. Daub
PUBLISHER: Louisville, KY: Westminster John-Knox Press, 2022, (100 pages).
 

Advent is just a few weeks away. With lower temperatures and lesser sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, the mood is set for quieter and gloomier weather. The gospels give us various dimensions to the nativity story. Most of our narratives about the birth of Jesus come from the gospel of Matthew and Luke. Instead of birth narratives, John provides us with a theological rendition of the birth of Jesus. Mark does not give us any information about baby Jesus, only some passing information about his mother and his ministry. Herein lies the challenge. How then do we discover Advent in the gospel of Mark? Author Tracy Daub shows us five ways to do just that.

1. Anticipating the Coming of Jesus
2. Peace on Earth in Christ Jesus
3. Belonging to Christ
4. The revelation of the Messiah
5. The Hope of Immanuel: God with Us

Daub starts the Advent preparation early by reflecting on Mark 13, the "little apocalypse" chapter. She unpacks the contexts of the first century and compares them with our existing world.

"The Long COVID Survival Guide" (Fiona Lowenstein, ed)

TITLE: The Long COVID Survival Guide: Stories and Advice from Twenty Long-Haulers and Experts
AUTHOR: Fiona Lowenstein, ed
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: The Experiment, 2022, (288 pages).
 

It has been more than two years since the pandemic began. Since 2020, people around the world have become more cautious about face masks, vaccination requirements, handwashing, disinfectants, and many other healthcare concerns. Many have gotten covid and subsequently recovered. However, not all recoveries are the same. Some continue to suffer symptoms called "long covid." While the rest of the world chug along, those with long covid symptoms find it the journey long and often lonely. From initial diagnosis to constant anxiety about whether it gets better or worse, even medical professionals are learning new things every day with regard to how to help patients deal with covid, especially long covid. In this book, we hear directly from contributors who have experienced either directly or indirectly the challenges of long covid. In this book, twenty contributors share their stories. Sabrina writes about her loss of smell, headaches, stomach flu symptoms, and a sense of exasperation of not having anyone who could expertly tell her what to do. She tells us that there are a lot more nuances to know with regard to healing and recovery. Many who have struggled with long covid realize they are no longer the same persons they used to be. We learn about what it takes to be a knowledgeable, understanding, and supportive community. We learn about logistical and financial advice. We learn about symptom management, crowdsourced guidance, discerning the theories floating around covid-19, and a host of other issues pertaining to understanding more about Long Covid. Conventional words like healing, recovery, care, disability, patient, are all redefined under the new awareness of long covid. From a first-person perspective, we read about:

"A Good and True Story" (Paul M. Gould)

TITLE: A Good and True Story: Eleven Clues to Understanding Our Universe and Your Place in It
AUTHOR: Paul M. Gould
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2022, (224 pages).
 

Who am I? What is my calling? What is my purpose in life? What am I supposed to be doing with my life? Where am I supposed to be? These questions about our identity, origin, purpose, and significance, can all be answered via two stories: One nonreligious and the other religious. The latter begins and ends with God. The former depends basically on science and a non-religious explanation of life. This includes the five philosophies of scientism, materialism, reductionism, atheism, and nihilism. With these two angles on life, author and professor Paul Gould then compares and contrasts them via eleven aspects of life. These eleven "clues" to life are:

1. The Universe
2. Life
3. Species
4. Humans
5. Morality
6. Meaning
7. Happiness
8. Pain
9. Love
10. Beauty
11. Religion

"The Call to Follow" (Richard Langer and Joanne J. Jung)

TITLE: The Call to Follow
AUTHOR: Richard Langer and Joanne J. Jung
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishers, 2022, (224 pages).
 

There are many resources on leadership. From seminars by well-known leaders to books written by famous authors, stuff on leadership continues to be highly sought after. In many societies, aspiring to positions of leadership is a badge of honor. Many schools even have special curricula to teach leadership. Training leaders is now a multibillion-dollar industry. In contrast, not much is talked about or taught with regard to the call to follow. Jesus clearly said: "Follow Me." It is a call to discipleship. For authors Richard Langer and Joanne Jung, this is a tough call. Tough because followship cannot hold a candle to the topic of leadership. Many people prefer to lead but few want to follow. Truth is, few are called to lead but we are all called to follow. Langer and Jung back this up with multiple statistics. When they search Amazon to find our books about leadership, the results outnumber followship on a ratio of 400:1. Even those books that teach us the importance of following eventually become another resource about leadership. The authors want this book to speak to all of us, regardless of whether we are in or not in any position of leadership. They then lead us through the steps to obey our calling to follow, more specifically, to follow after Jesus. In Chapter One, the authors call us to distinguish between helpful and harmful teachings of leadership, before turning to the topic of what it means to follow. They define followship as "we follow Christ (deference) through the power of the Spirit and with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength (engagement and zeal) in order to glorify God and build his kingdom (mission ownership)." They help remove layers of myths regarding the call to follow. Comparing "followship stereotype" and "biblical followship," they help set the stage for us to boldly walk the path of discipleship and followship. They point out the significance of followship that should not be undermined. They help us with reasons to learn more about followship. 

1 & 2 Kings Kerux Commentary (David B. Schreiner and Lee Compson)

TITLE: 1 & 2 Kings: A Commentary for Biblical Preaching and Teaching (Kerux)
AUTHOR: David B. Schreiner and Lee Compson
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2022, (320 pages).
 

The Bible is often called the Book of Life. It is God's Word and gives us many reasons for faith, testimonies of hope, and expressions of love. With hundreds of pages on a modern printed Bible, it can be intimidating for most people to read. Not only that, the texts are considered ancient literature. The contexts can be quite difficult for modern readers to understand, let alone preach or teach. That is why many preachers and teachers go through some form of Bible school to be trained. For many others who do not get this privilege to set aside time for school, the next best thing is to use secondary resources as guides. Bible commentaries are particularly illuminating. Even if they are written from a different faith position from ours, they can give us a good grasp of understanding the ancient texts. The Kerux commentary series is geared toward helping preachers and teachers bring the Word of God to the people of God in a manner that is insightful, interesting, and impactful. There are typical introductions, outlines, summaries of chapters, as well as theological emphases. What makes this commentary unique is that it is based on the "Big Idea" preaching, first popularized by the late preacher Dr. Haddon Robinson. This is the common framework used by both Bible exegetes as well as homileticians. The key question to help unite the authors in the commentary is this: "What is prime in God's mind, and how is that expressed to a given generation in the units of thought throughout the Bible?" 

"The Word Before Work" (Jordan Raynor)

TITLE: The Word Before Work: A Monday-Through-Friday Devotional to Help You Find Eternal Purpose in Your Daily Work
AUTHOR: Jordan Raynor
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: Waterbrook, 2022, (304 pages).
 

Work is very much a way of life. God ordained it thus making work a gift for mankind. Unfortunately, due to the entry of sin into the world, work has become corrupted in many dimensions, so much so that for some people, work is best described as some kind of a necessary evil. You hate it but you cannot live without it. In a stressful highly charged work environment, I have also heard working people tell me that their jobs suck. Yet, they needed the job to pay their mortgages, bills, and other essential expenses. The popular phrase, "Thank God it's Friday" describes how society views the notion of work. People look forward to the weekend as a way to escape the mundane toil of work. The question remains: Is work really a bad thing? What can we do to make work more bearable? Can work be more than mere survival? How can we redeem work? The simple answer from this book is this: Let the Word of God guide us before we commence each workday. Written like a devotional over a period of 52 work weeks, author Jordan Raynor gives us a daily reflection on Scripture followed by a short exhortation to help us embrace the day with faith and hope. The first four weeks comprise foundational material to anchor readers on the biblical narrative and purpose of work. Mondays and Thursdays contain reflections on Old Testament passages. Tuesdays and Fridays are reserved for New Testament passages. Wednesdays are filled with mid-point interjections with Wisdom Literature. The book is inspired by positive feedback from the author's popular weekly devotional "The Word Before Work." This book extends the project to cover a whole year's workweek. Each week contains devotionals from Monday to Friday. Weekends are excluded. The premise behind this book is to let our faith shine as we venture into the world of work. Not just one day per week but every day of a typical five-day workweek. 

"Grace at Work" (Bryan Chapell)

TITLE: Grace at Work: Redeeming the Grind and the Glory of Your Job
AUTHOR: Bryan Chapell
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022, (240 pages).

Our work matters to God. In fact, the kinds of work we do are also opportunities for us to glorify God and to make His Glory known. The end of a Church service should mark the beginning of our service out in the world. Yet, how many believers actually know that or practice that? Sadly, very few. Worship is connected to our vocation. Our vocation is an act of worship. It is not limited to simply a Sunday worship service. Just like the popular song "Consuming Fire" by Tim Hughes, worship must be something more than Sunday worship. Author Bryan Chapell helps us by giving us a resource to enable us to see our jobs as opportunities to worship God. With many of us intensely immersed in our respective jobs and responsibilities, we need to learn how to take our faith to work. We need to adopt a grace mindset when performing our jobs. He looks at grace at work from ten angles. He begins with dignity and the dignity of the work set out for us. Our work has inherent meaning and significance, and our participation should enhance that dignity as well. Just like how God had created the world and called it good, we need to look at the world we live in and acknowledge its inherent goodness. We are also reminded not to base our own personal worth on the work we do. With sin having tarnished the world, work has also been tarnished and it is via God's redemptive work that has made all things new.