This book is the kind of biography that warms your heart. If you happen to be in the ministry, you will get a double blessing. Iain Murray scores again with yet another quality biography in his repertoire. In this case, he has brought to life a man so worth knowing.

Ryle’s story is compelling. Though Ryle had a godly grandfather, his father became enormously wealthy and did not raise his children to follow the Lord. At one point, Ryle seemed like a person who could never become what he finally did. He is a testament of God’s grace.

His father went bankrupt and Ryle, then in his mid-twenties,  hardly knew which way to go in life. He quickly lost two wives though he was blessed with children. Even in later life with much success in the ministry, he lost his third wife! Trials played a part, as with many such men, in the men they became.

He was a man of the Book. He studied intensely and grew to publish many impressive titles. Though he was deeply involved in the Church of England, his first allegiance was to the Lord and His Word. When his beloved son Herbert became infected with higher critical methods, he never wavered though he managed to keep a relationship with his son. The subtitle “Prepared To Stand Alone” was a worthy description of him.

You may find some of his church battles uninteresting, but you will love the man. I was greatly challenged by his life. Murray has done us a service by giving us this attractive volume. I warmly recommend it.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

We all want to successfully live a life of purpose and fear failing. According to Crouch we make a false choice between strength and weakness.In fact, we could fail with either much strength or much weakness.

He divides our lives along where we are in authority and vulnerability. Then he gives us a fine graph of where we end up– one of four quadrants. High authority and low vulnerability makes you exploiting. If you’re low in both, you are withdrawing. If you’re highly vulnerable with little authority, you are likely suffering. That leaves the place you want to be–flourishing. The only way to get there is to earn authority while exposing yourself to vulnerability.

That graph and its careful explanation is the book. It reads well and is not overly long at less than 200 pages. The strength of this volume is its ability to illustrate situations that we can see ourselves in. That helps us see if we are really flourishing or not. Better yet, it will, by its thoughtful discussion, give us guidance in transitioning to a flourishing life. I think you will appreciate this book.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

This book blessed my soul. It said so much that needs to be said, yet we never hear. Along the way you get a good understanding of what the Bible tells us about rest. This book is not “get apart and rest”, or even “stop and smell the roses along the way”. No, though those type books are popular in our exhausting age, this book goes much deeper in the concept of rest. We don’t rest because we don’t even know what it is. John Koessler gives us exactly what we need to get our thinking straight.

He explains how our thinking is skewed these days and affects us as Christians and especially those in ministry. We fall into what he describes as “the productivity trap”. It has come to us from the business world. We now assume busier is better. We always want to exceed what we have done before. He says,”The church is driven by bottom line just as much as a company whose lifeblood is sales revenue.” We even to fail to see that worship is a wonderful thing and critically important, though we might feel we aren’t actually doing anything.

We get reduced to selling our brand–our particular church. We change our worship to consumerism. He says, “Visitors are treated like consumers and the church’s members are employees whose main job is to promote the brand. They do not worship; they produce. ” How incredibly perceptive is what he shares.

He used the Sabbath and Christ’s saying “I will give you rest”to explain the idea of rest. Rest is trusting God. He says, “Rest is a practice because the ‘work’ of rest is rooted in the finished work of God.”

There is so much more here. This book is exceedingly valuable. I wish all of us would read it and take it to heart.  

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.