"The King and the Dragon" (James W. Shrimpton)

TITLE: The King and the Dragon
AUTHOR: James W. Shrimpton
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022, (32 pages).
 

How do we tell the story of the Bible to children? How can we explain the great truths of the Bible that they can easily understand? In this delightful and colorful book about a good king and an evil dragon, author James Shrimpton writes a compelling story that should captivate the hearts and minds of little children. Right from the start, adult readers will be able to grasp quickly the story of creation, the Eden temptation, the downfall of Adam and Eve, the repeated attempts by God to send help, and finally, the person of Jesus Christ. With pictures that illuminate the flow of the story, children will be able to understand the simple plot between good and evil, and more importantly, God and everything else. Helena Perez Garcia illustrates the story well with lots of images that depict not just the storyline, but some glimpses of biblical images. We see the fruit of the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. We see the dark clouds of temptation. We see how the evil dragon uses trickery and deception to trip the world into sin. The debilitating conditions of the dry trees and dull-colored pages show the world in despair. The candlelight shows a small glimmer of hope in Jesus. Finally, the brave knight manages to slay the dragon, just like in the Medieval stories of old. This slaying is essentially about the resurrection of Christ that declares the victory of God over death, evil, and sin.

The strength of this book lies very much in the simplicity of the story and the captivating colours of illustration. In fact, the colours themselves tell the story of the contrast with and without God. In fact, just by looking at the pictures, one could allow children to interact by asking questions. This book might be brief but the opportunities for discussion are endless. The words are there to guide the general flow of the story, but the pictures illuminate the message in greater depth. This is a good book to help introduce young readers to the story of the Bible. Even though the messages have been abridged, they should be seen more as an introductory text to stir up interest in the Bible.

Kudos to the author and illustrator for helping reach children with a simple message of the Bible and the gospel message. I warmly recommend this book for Sunday School, parents of young children, and anyone trying to teach the Bible to kids.

James W. Shrimpton (MSc, University of Dundee) is a chartered accountant and hymn writer. He lives in Aberdeen, Scotland, with his wife and children, where they are members of Trinity Church Aberdeen.

Helena Perez Garcia is a London-based illustrator who specializes in portraits, editorial illustration, and book illustration. Her work is inspired by art, literature, and films, and has been featured by publishing houses, publications, and newspapers, such as Penguin Random House and BuzzFeed.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

"Rose Guide to the Feasts, Festivals, and Fasts of the Bible" (Paul H. Wright, ed)

TITLE: Rose Guide to the Feasts, Festivals and Fasts of the Bible 

AUTHOR: Paul H. Wright (Editor)
PUBLISHER: Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2022, (232 pages).

What is the connection between Food and Faith? Why are festivals so much a part of the Hebrews? What is the significance of events surrounding feasting and fasting? How does food foster relationships? This book attempts to answer some of these questions from biblical, historical, relational, theological, and practical perspectives. Covering both the Old Testament and New Testament feasts, the author aims to help us see how the simple act of eating could bring people together and bind them. At the same time, festivals enable us to be in tune with the cycles of a religious year. Like seasons during the year, these timely observances enable us physically and spiritually to appreciate God's intended rhythms of rest, relaxation, and relational dimensions of creation. 

Beginning with Old Testament feasts, readers get a fascinating overview of what the ancient Israelites did through the year. Paul Wright asserts that food provides not just nourishment for the body, it is also for the soul. 

"Since the Beginning" (edited by Kyle R. Greenwood)

TITLE: Since the Beginning: Interpreting Genesis 1 and 2 through the Ages
AUTHOR: Kyle R. Greenwood (editor)
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018, (336 pages).

The word "Genesis" means origin or beginning. It addresses questions about the origin of all things and the way the world was made. It is where history all begun. With the texts clearly written in Genesis 1 and 2, one might think the matter is resolved. Not really. There are different interpretations that demand attention. Even the word "literal" could have different meanings. In this book, we learn about attentive listening to these different perspectives. The purpose is to broaden our space for conversation so that we can better understand the texts and the nuances that come with them. The different views are provided by ten different scholars, each of them experts in the field they teach. There are both Jewish and Christian scholars and theologians. There are historians and Early Church teachers. The authors are also drawn from different denominations and faith backgrounds to give the book an ecumenical look and feel. A key observation is that many modern readers interpret Gen 1 and 2 from a modernistic perspective, and pay scant attention to how the early readers and listeners' understanding. In other words, our modern interpretations are biased toward our understanding instead of the original meaning. In order to establish a common framework for discussion, the four "explicit issues" are:

• How 'days' are treated
• Cosmology
• Creation and nature of humanity
• Garden of Eden

"How to Read Water" (Tristan Gooley)

TITLE: How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea
AUTHOR: Tristan Gooley
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: The Experiment, 2016, (368 pages).

Water is everywhere around us. They are visible in the clouds and the rains; the rivers and the streams; the lakes and the oceans. We use it to hydrate our gardens; to cook our meals; to wash our premises; and many other aspects of life. Just as water has many uses, if we take the time to consider what we are looking for, water can be interpreted in both philosophical as well as practical ways. Rather than to reduce it to the level of meaning only according to the eyes of the beholder, the author believes that with wisdom and intuition, there is more to water than the physical images that meet the eye. Several things move Tristan Gooley on her quest for discovering the meaning of water. First, knowing how to read the clues in puddles and streams can give us a good idea of what it happening underneath them. Second, it is easier to learn about water when our feet is on firm ground. Third, reading water is a unique navigational skill. Four, there is a mystery about water that can deepen the wonder and appreciation of this precious resource.

"Thumbprint in the Clay" (Luci Shaw)

TITLE: Thumbprint in the Clay: Divine Marks of Beauty, Order and Grace
AUTHOR: Luci Shaw
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2016, (205 pages).

Luci Shaw is a gift to the literary world. Not only is she a master with words, she has a keen eye to observe ordinary things and to let them bounce off reflections of life. She reflects on the coffee mug and how it is used as a symbol of family and hospitality. From within the small world of the coffee cup, she zooms out to the big wide world, anchoring her thoughts from 36000 feet in the airplane and looking at the world God had created. Meandering through "God's graphics," she leaves through photographs, observations, histories, past civilizations, and lands back to earth, having caught a glimpse from God's perspective. From the Pacific Northwest, she is reminded of God's creation and natural wonder, appreciating people, acknowledging beauty, and admiring rocks! Her silent retreat at the monastery is probably one of her secrets in training her powers of observation. More importantly, it speaks of her innermost desire to be closer to God. Here, Shaw's theological engine kicks in. She integrates philosophy with spirituality. She activates the words of her literary friends like Annie Dillard, Madeleine L'Engle, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Eugene Peterson. She includes one of her favourite art journals, Image, and reflects on them equally well, showing us that one does not need to be physically present at any particular place to learn to appreciate natural beauty. For it is not the actual place alone that can trigger one's sense of wonder. It is the admiring heart that paints the world with colour. From theology, we come back to Shaw's TV set. She connects the TV programs with one's sense of identity. From DNA to thumbprints, forensic analysis to police investigations, we are reminded of a world larger than mere crime triggered investigations. Shaw links the physics of the world with the creation of life. Moving in and out from the world of words to the real world, and back again, it can be a challenge to try to capture and to predict where Shaw is going next. My advice: Don't bother. Just enjoy. If you can pace with her, by all means do so. Better to pace it at your own speed. This is not about getting the most out of this book. It is about allowing the best of us to appreciate the best of God's world, seen through the eyes of Shaw.

"From Nature to Creation" (Norman Wirzba)

TITLE: From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World (The Church and Postmodern Culture)
AUTHOR: Norman Wirzba
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015, (176 pages).

Should Christians live more for the future and less for the present? Is God's gift of salvation mainly a ticket to some heavenly future without earthly responsibility? Absolutely not. If our Christian living is merely preparing ourselves for the heavenly realm, our Christianity is a "theological disaster." So begins author and professor Norman Wirzba in this book that aims to bring back the integrity and value of the world we live in. Our salvation is important. How we live is also important. The world we live in is a gift for us to cherish and to care for. If God had created the world and called it good, how can we say otherwise? Wirzba is Professor of Theology, Ecology, and Agrarian Studies at Duke Divinity School. A keen scholar of the doctrine of creation, he has written this book with chapters based on his 2013 Jellema lectures at various locations as well as a 2012 biannual meeting of the Society of Continental Philosophy and Theology. This book is a call for Christians to take the environment and the ecological concerns seriously. Develop an imagination of a world loved and sustained by God. Treasure the earth resources as a gift. This book is an attempt to help us cast and sustain a vision of care for nature and creation.

"Awe" (Paul David Tripp)

TITLE: Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do
AUTHOR: Paul David Tripp
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015, (208 pages).

We need to make space for wonder. We need to find room to discover the divine. We need to be still in awe of God's presence. Confessing that he wrote this book for himself, author and pastor Paul David Tripp gives several reasons why awe is more necessary than ever. First, God's creation is already wonderful in itself as it reflects a beauty that can stimulate our senses. Second, for a fickle and wandering soul, we need something to keep our roving thoughts in check. Third, we need more attentiveness for the presence of God. Fourth, we need to "recapture, refocus, and redirect" our heart's attention to God over and over again. Fifth, with awe, one will be able to shape our words, thoughts, and deeds, according to the spiritual awareness of God. It is awe that many of us lack. When we think we have everything under control, where is there a need for awe?

Tripp takes us through thirteen windows of awe, beginning with HUMANITY, where there are so many things we can share and appreciate together because we are all created with the ability to wonder. Even when we have all the answers the the everyday problems we face, without awe, we will be stuck in cycles of discontent. He thinks about WAR and becomes aware of "awe wrongedness" (AWN) which happens when we feel wronged, victimized, received the shorter end of the stick, unjustly treated. Wars happen when this AWN takes root. The world through the past century have endured two world wars, and many more scattered across various continents. Even today, wars are happening not only in the Middle East but in Eastern Europe, restless pockets of strife in Asia, unrest in Africa and the Americas. On MINISTRY, Tripp sometimes wonder if he has truly been called to ministry in the first place. If worshiping God is foremost, why then are people constantly getting stuck in doing things that do not resemble any act of worship? He surmises: "Only a functional, heart-directed, ministry-shaping awe of God has the power to protect me from myself in ministry." We are hardwired for awe, and when our heart goes through a REPLACEMENT, with us replacing God with other gods, our sense of awe becomes warped. We forget God. We suffer from AMNESIA, seeing without truly seeing, and hearing without truly hearing. Through self-centeredness, a grotesque sense of entitlement, discontent, relational dysfunction, control, fear, anger, envy, drivenness, doubt, coldness, and others, our capacity for awe gets decapitated.  TRANSGRESSION follows suit. We snigger at the laws of God. We belittle the importance of obedience. We swim in rivers of COMPLAINT and give critical and sarcastic answers to the five diagnostic questions about God. Instead, we move toward MATERIALISM and puts our trust in the temporal things of life. Failing to answer the two most important questions in our lives will put a damper to GROWTH. Thankfully, Tripp presents us with two "awe portraits" from Galatians 5. The first is to be careful of the works of the flesh. The second is to don the fruit of the Spirit. Spiritual growth comes with the suppression of the former and the increase of the latter.  As the author quotes at length the passage from Isaiah 40, he senses a WORLDVIEW awareness. He gains a bigger picture of CHURCH. Seeing PARENTING as a high calling, readers learn about awe inspiring moments that we can teach our children. We gain a renewed sense of WORK that puts in proper perspectives that it is our identity in Christ that gives us our worth, not our works. Eventually, Tripp boils it all down to one phrase: "Awe is a longing."

"40 Questions About Creation and Evolution" (Kenneth D. Keathley and Mark F. Rooker)

TITLE: 40 Questions About Creation and Evolution (40 Questions and Answers Series)
AUTHOR: Kenneth D. Keathley and Mark F. Rooker
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2014, (432 pages).

Is there a conflict between science and faith? Is there a way to understand both? When is the beginning of the world? What is the origin of the human species. How did the world come into existence? These questions have challenged people through the centuries. From archaeology to philosophy; humanistic thought to theology, the questions about the beginning of the world and man continue to fascinate. In this book, forty questions are posed with regards to creation and evolution. All of the questions are categorized in 6 major parts.

Part 1 - Doctrine of Creation
Part 2 - Creation and Genesis 1-2
Part 3 - Days of Creation
Part 4 - Age of the Earth
Part 5 - Fall and the Flood
Part 6 - Evolution and Intelligent Design

"Planted" (Leah Kostamo)

TITLE: Planted: A Story of Creation, Calling, and Community
AUTHOR: Leah Kostamo
PUBLISHER: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013, (172 pages).

This is a beautiful book. Few books have managed to capture the essence of nature, the joys of community, and the affirmation of a simple calling like this one. Leah Kostamo, a wife, a former campus ministry worker, as well as a co-founder of the A Rocha ministry based in BC Canada, has shown us how good stories can be told with simplicity, with insight, and with humour. Combining her love for creation and conservation, her natural talent for observing details in ordinary things, her passion for community building, coupled with her eloquent use of words, this book is destined for greatness in the literary world. As a memoir, readers will be humbled at how the author and her husband Markku would give up lucrative careers, sell their house, and to pour all their assets into a non-profit ministry without guarantee that it would even survive its initial years. Yet, it did and it did so marvelously, blessing, teaching, and enabling thousands of visitors and volunteers at their farm facility. The ministry in Canada began as a seed back in 1996 at a Regent College course entitled, "Incarnational Mission" led by Peter and Miranda Harris, who had founded A Rocha in Portugal. Eight years later, the idea took root, and sprouted trunks and branches through personal investments as well as generous givers and loaners by those who expressed faith enough to walk with the Kostamos.

The book is also a mini-ecological guide. We learn about the threats of worldwide extinction of 13% of birds, 25% of mammals, and 41% of amphibians. We see how a tiny shrimp plays its microscopic role in a complex and delicate ecological environment, that benefits beavers, bears, and big trees. We read about invasive species, weeds, the birds, and even slugs. Along the way, Kostamo makes sure we do not get carried away in the natural world and forget about the technological world. With a deft touch of humour, she compares and contrasts pods of orcas with iPods! It can also be used as a primer in becoming more nature aware. We are encouraged to think about the tap water we have, to think about its source, its distribution channels, and all the resources poured into the whole system. We are challenged to think about the gardens, how the seasons impact life, the variety of birds and nature around us, and even rocks and minerals that seem so mundane for the busy individual.

It is also a guide for a deeper awareness of what eating entails. For those of us whose limited vocabulary of eating centered around restaurants, the food on our tables, or the kitchen, we get invited into a world of farming, of growing our own food, and the beauty of real food over processed stuff. Food is not just something to be consumed, but it can incorporate a work of art in itself. Beyond the feasting, we will appreciate the preparation beyond mere cook books, and to be respectful in the way we partake of God's providence for us. Slowly but surely, the book becomes a rallying point in the practice of Micah 6:8, that we learn to live justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly. Very aptly, the book closes with a relook at the biblical Sabbath, reminding us that working hard and doing good have their limits. Man can only do so much. Everything else totally depends on God alone. The keeping of the Sabbath is a powerful reminder that we by ourselves are limited. That is why Sabbath keeping enables us to be natural ourselves one day a week, as we busy ourselves with nature on the other six days.

This book is a rare find. More accurately, the book found me. When contacted to do this review, I promptly agreed because of curiosity in part, and to support a fellow Regent alum as well. Little did I know that I would be receiving a literary gem, a unique seed that germinates in me a greater appreciation of nature and creation. Most of all, I am humbled by how the Kostamos' passion-turned-reality have blessed people of all ages from all walks of life. There is a lot of material in this humble looking book. Open it up at any one page and you can easily find a point or two to learn from and to contemplate after.

I am full of praise of the quality of this book. I particularly appreciate the three points to show us the way forward, namely; 1) Practice Gratitude; 2) Practice Generosity; and 3) Practice the Sabbath Keeping. On all three counts, I say a hearty Amen! A clear best of the best so far in my 2014 stack of books.

Thank you, Leah Kostamo for letting me know that this book even existed.

 An American transplant to Canada, Leah Kostamo has a background in campus ministry and education. For the past twelve years, Leah has worked alongside her husband, Markku, to show God’s love for all of creation through the ministry of A Rocha. She lives and thrives on Kingfisher Farm near Vancouver, BC.  

Rating: 5 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book is provided to me courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.